Page 40 of Bound By Blood
She was their lasthope of not having the demons’ wrath come down on them, their lasthope of surviving.
He would make surethey didn’t.
***
“Hello, princess,”the Savage purred.
The amused gleamin the Savage’s eyes told Caro this woman didn’t think she was anythreat. Gritting her teeth against the woman’s dismissiveassumption of what she could do, Caro’s hand tightened on thedagger.
She’d never killedanother living thing in her life. Even when she fed, she was gentleand took the memories from the few humans she drank from. Sherarely hunted animals, preferring blood bags, but she’d neverkilled any of the ones she did hunt.
However, she’d gutthis woman before she let the Savage take her from here. Instead ofretreating into the booth, as she suspected the Savage anticipatedher doing, Caro stepped into the woman and pulled her bladefree.
Caro plunged thedagger into the woman’s belly. “Hello, bitch.”
Shock registeredon the woman’s face. Nausea churned in Caro’s belly as she twistedthe blade deeper. It wasn’t a mortal wound, it would take a lotmore than this to kill a vampire, but it would weaken her.
Smiling grimly atthe woman, Caro ripped the blade free. A hot rush of blood pouredfrom the woman’s gut as her hands flew to her stomach and sheclutched her belly.
Caro glancedaround to see if anyone had noticed them, but everyone was soinvested in their games and friends, that no one paid them anyattention. And they stood so close that no one could see the bloodoozing between the woman’s fingers as she gazed at Caro with amixture of loathing and disbelief.
Placing her handon the woman’s shoulder, Caro started to push her back, but like aghost rising from the ground, Saber appeared behind her. BeforeCaro could decide what to do, Saber draped his arm around thewoman’s shoulders in an almost loving way.
If it wasn’t forthe set of his jaw, she almost would have believed they werefriends, but fury etched his features, and red flickered in hiscold eyes. Despite those signs of rage, seeing him with his armaround another woman made Caro want to claw out both theireyes.
Caro edged out ofthe way as Saber led the woman toward the photo booth. The womanstruggled against his hold and turned into him as she tried to pushaway, but Saber discreetly caught her hand, pulled her closer, andmaneuvered her into the photo booth.
When the curtainswayed open enough to reveal Saber breaking the woman’s neck, Caroturned away as the woman slumped onto the bench. When he reemerged,Caro slid her bloody dagger back into its holster. She made sureher shirt covered it and no blood stained her clothing.
Saber examinedCaro as his heart hammered. It had taken too much time to get backto her, and the Savage had gotten too close. They could have hurtCaro.
He glanced back atthe photo booth as he debated going in there and tearing theSavage’s head off, but he couldn’t. As much as he longed to killthem, he couldn’t leave a mutilated body behind for the humans tofind.
All he could dowas incapacitate the Savage long enough for them to escape. Thebody in the car was their problem, but if he left bodies inside thearcade, it wasalltheir problem.
“Are you okay?” hedemanded.
“I’m fine. What ifsomeone finds her?”
“That’s herproblem. Let’s go.”
Gently claspingher elbow, he led her back through all the noise toward the frontof the arcade. The remaining two Savages trailed them.
He’d hoped to losethem in all the noise and confusion, but it wasn’t going to happen.They had to get out of here before the woman recovered and rejoinedthe hunt.
They also couldn’tbe here if they did find her. She would have to take care ofcovering her tracks and the body in the car, but they couldn’t havesomeone pointing at them if they’d seen something.
“Do you have astake on you?” he asked.
“No.”
“Do you have a wayto carry one?”
“No.”
“When this isover, we’re going to remedy that. From now on, you’ll always carrya stake.”
Caro ignored hisbossy tone. He was looking out for her; she could handledomineering for a good cause. He better not keep trying it,though.
