Page 68 of The Ghost and the Graveyard (Knight Games 1)
The room spun. The walls pressed in around me. My head pounded like it might split open. I stood up and backed toward the door. "You're insane."
"Think about it. Have you any other explanation for our connection? The physical and mental link we have is because we've already spent lifetimes together. We've been married. We could be married again."
"Married? I've barely known you a week!" I held the sides of my pounding head. "Besides, you took me to Monk's Hill. There were no vampires. We had lunch in front of the chapel. "
"They come at night. The sun seals the hellmouth, but after sunset, it opens again."
"I won't listen to this." I backed toward the door and placed my hand on the knob.
"Grateful, please-"
I couldn't take any more. I had to get out of there. Out the door and into the night I ran, but I did not go home. I ran straight across the street to the source of the lie, the cemetery. I was surprised to find the gate open. During our date, Rick had made a point of keeping it locked. Maybe he'd wanted me to enter. I cast the notion aside.
He was behind me the instant I crossed the threshold, closing and locking the gate from the inside. Great, now I was trapped inside the graveyard with a lunatic. This might not have been my wisest decision. I sprinted away from him the best I could in my high-heeled boots, up the steep gravel path toward Monk's Chapel. Somehow, with blister inducing effort, I made it to the top without breaking a heel.
I glanced back but didn't see Rick. Considering he could easily catch me with these patent leather torture devices zipped to my feet, I hoped he'd given up and gone home. Breath coming in huffs, my legs burned from the effort of the climb and I pitched forward, resting my hands on my knees while I caught my breath. The night was quiet except for the stones under my shifting feet and the persistent song of crickets.
Under the light of the full moon, the white walls of the chapel seemed to glow. Straightening, I moved toward it, thinking I'd have a rest inside. The door was locked. Crap. I pressed my back against the wood and looked out over the graveyard. All was quiet. Nothing. After this, Rick would have to drop his ludicrous story and tell me the truth, if I even cared to hear it. At the moment, I was leaning toward cutting the crazy man out of my life for good, although the thought made my chest feel heavy.
The hedges to my right rustled and two large yellow eyes blinked in my direction. A raccoon? The animal turned, and the moon reflected off silver skin. An opossum. A very large opossum. A loud snap to my left attracted my attention away from whatever slithered from the bushes. The looming silhouette of a man moved toward me, too far away for me to make out his face.
"Rick, is that you?" I called, but if it was Rick, he didn't answer.
"Excuse me, is there something I can help you with?" said a smooth voice from beside me. I whirled. A pale man with slicked-back red hair and luminescent blue eyes smiled at me.
"What are you doing in here?" I asked him.
"Waiting."
"For what?" He was in the middle of a cemetery at night. What could he be waiting for? I hugged my chest.
"Something to eat."
"There's a soup kitchen downtown," I blurted, but even as the words came out I had the awful feeling there was something very wrong with this man. I was a nurse. I assessed people for a living. His skin was too pale, his eyes too large in his head, and his chest wasn't moving. Whatever was in front of me was not breathing.
"I won't be needing a soup kitchen," he said and peeled his lips back from razor-sharp incisors. He held out his hand. "Why don't you join me?"
Did he assume I couldn't see his fangs or just believe I'd be too frightened to run? I shuffled away from his hand and turned to bolt. My face smacked into someone.
"Oh, excuse me," I said automatically, then looked at what I'd hit.
Rotting flesh, swimming milky eyeballs, decomposing clothes, and a smell that I only recognized from my time working in the morgue. I was face to face with the walking dead.
I screamed, dodging left. The zombie's sluggish grasp brushed the top of my hair. Laughing, the vampire stepped toward me, slowly, deliberately. The silver animal rushed from the bushes, pursuing me with flashing claws and teeth. At the competition for my flesh, the vamp hissed and swiped the creature aside. I used the distraction to scurry down the pebble pathway, but the gate was too far off. I'd never outrun them. Worse, dark figures rose from the tombstones ahead, turning dead eyes in my direction. My heart fluttered in panic. Ice water filled my veins.
"Rick!" I screamed. "Riiiiick! I believe you. I believe you!"
Above me, an eerie wind blew my hair forward. Wump-wump-wump. The sound of beating wings closed in. I wrestled my hair back from my eyes, while my feet continued their forward pursuit, and turned my face to the sky. A monstrous, leathery wing passed over me.
Shit! Things in here could fly? I waved my hands above my head as if I could shoo the flying beast away and wailed loud enough to wake any dead who weren't already chasing me.
Crack. My right heel snapped off my boot, sending me flying. Ass over teacup, I somersaulted down the pebble path. I landed on my back with a clear view of the source of the flapping. Like nothing I'd ever seen before, the thing had fur and scales, with a barbed tail. The beast descended from above and landed on the path. Dragon-like, the huge creature flapped its leathery wings between Monk's Chapel and me.
The giant, silver opossum-thing pounced, ducking around the dragon-beast in pursuit of my fallen body. I covered my head with my arms. The strike never came. Instead, an eerie shriek filled the night. I lowered my arms to see the dragon scoop the silver beast into its reptilian jaws and swallow it whole. Sobbing, I crab-walked toward the gate. A dead hand landed on my shoulder. Zombie!. Before I could scream, the dragon's jaws clamped around the zombie's body. Black blood sprayed across my torso.
I scrambled to my feet, desperate not to be the dragon's next victim. I wasn't fast enough.
Talons closed around my torso. I pounded on the paws and yanked on the fur to no avail. The monster took to the sky, me screaming beneath it. Where was it taking me? Would I become a meal for some baby dragon creature?
