Page 63 of Throwing Shade
I was on Lindsey in a moment before I could think better of it, trying to pry her off. But I wasn’t strong enough, would never be strong enough, and she threw me one-handed across the alley into a building. My tailbone blazed with needle-hot pain and I slid down the wall onto my ass with a groan.
The vamp dropped her victim, daintily licked a smear of blood off the corner of her mouth, then belched. “’Kay, let’s go.”
He was pale, but still breathing. Good.
I stood up, one hand on my throbbing lower back. “We can’t leave him there.”
She turned a puzzled look on the man. “Why not?”
“He needs medical attention or something.”
“Oh. In that case…” She walked over and snapped his neck.
I stifled my scream with my fist. What had I done? Would he have lived if I’d said nothing?
The psycho looped her arm through mine. “Come on. We don’t want to be late.”
If Lindsey got me to our destination, it was game over. I slid my other hand behind me, grabbed the wooden stake stashed against the small of my back that I’d stolen from one of Sadie’s cosplay outfits before I’d left the house, and stabbed Lindsey.
New fact: stakes don’t slide into vampires like knives through butter. I tore through the skin and muscular tissue, but the stake got lodged ineffectively between her ribs.
We both looked down at it then Lindsey ripped it out of her chest.
The wood hit the ground with a clatter, right as I hid beneath my invisibility cloaking.
The vamp turned in a circle. “Where’d you go?”
She couldn’t smell me under my magic, and given she was peering in the opposite direction from where I stood, she couldn’t hear my heartbeat either. Perfect.
I let out a quiet sigh and snuck over to the dumpster, easing it away from the wall far enough to worm behind it. Dropping my cloaking, Delilah and I shoved the dumpster at the vampire.
Lindsey’s eyes widened comically as the dumpster ran her over. Only the vamp’s pink sparkly heels stuck out.
Ding dong, the bitch is dead. I did a quick Moonwalk, a highly underrated gesture in the triumph pantheon.
Lindsey screamed and cursed me out, very much not dead.
I kicked a pop can into the wall. I couldn’t exactly leave her here, nor did I want to reverse the dumpster over her a few times. I’d done that once accidentally with a raccoon, but I’d never managed to actually kill it and put it out of its misery. It just got mushier with the occasional crunchy texture under my tires, its cries growing more piteous, while I stuttered out “sorries” before fleeing like criminal. To this day I couldn’t go over a speed bump without flinching.
The dumpster rose an inch off the ground and collapsed back down with a shuddering thud.
I ran for the mouth of the alley, but there was a savage cry and the trash bin flew over my head, crashing down and rolling over to totally block my exit. Garbage exploded like nasty-ass stink bombs and my stomach lurched.
The vamp blurred toward me… and came to a standstill an inch out of arm’s reach. She glanced back at Delilah, illuminated by the light blazing out from the open pizzeria door. My shadow had grabbed hold of Lindsey’s and crumpled it, immobilizing the vamp.
Wow. Farming that out to Delilah actually worked.
Lindsey looked me in the eyes, her irises darkening. “Release me.”
There was the slightest desire to accede to her wishes, about on par with when Sadie begged me for a puppy. For a moment I entertained the notion, wanting to make her happy, then I gave the vamp the same answer I’d give my daughter. “Not in this lifetime.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You’ll get tired and release me soon enough. And then you’re dead meat.”
“That is a problem.” Now what? Using the stake was a no-go. I’d already proven that I wouldn’t be quitting my day job to become a Slayer, given how I’d botched the first attempt.
I circled the vamp. Everything except her facial expressions were frozen. I tapped my lip, my eyes narrowed on my shadow. Whatever injury Delilah sustained, I experienced. It was the way that our magic, rooted in death and darkness worked. The undead were creatures of the night, so how much harm could I do to Lindsey’s physical body if I inflicted damage on her shadow?
A loose plan came together. I knelt down and closed the eyes of the murdered pizza employee. His mother was going to face her worst nightmare because children weren’t supposed to die before their parents. After taking a moment to remember the deceased’s face, I found his lighter, walked over to Delilah, and took the vamp’s shadow from her.
