Page 66 of The Shade of Things
The lead vampire reached for the Black man…
…The lit fuse made its way to the car with my first true love in it.
Praying I wasn’t making the worst mistake of my life, I sent Delilah to take care of the rope. There were enough vamps in here that the shadow scythe held firm even when she wasn’t fighting the undead.
I sprinted the other way, hopped on the lead vamp’s back, ignoring the pain of the blisters rubbed raw in my boots, and hauled him backward off Okeyo.
Emmett cried out as the hyena snapped his cane like it was a crunchy potato chip. The two rolled, fighting, across the floor.
The vamp turned on me. His partner was fighting with a brown wolf shifter over the rights to Mateo’s limp and bleeding body.
Okeyo met my eyes and I jerked my chin.
He ran.
My opponent flipped me over his shoulder, my poor spine thudding against the concrete.
While Delilah’s vision revealed that my shadow had successfully chopped the rope before the flame got to the gasoline-soaked part, a puddle of the flammable liquid spread out from under the tank.
Rahm crouched by it, lighter out.
My rage was gasoline flowing through my veins.
The vampire kicked my ribs, and I curled into the fetal position with my head covered, peering out through cracks between my fingers.
That assault was the spark that ignited my fury.
Delilah slammed the blade down, severing Rahm’s hand.
His blood didn’t spurt like a Tarantino film. There was still plenty of it, but I wished for that over-the-top cartoony quality because it would have been easier to live with than Rahm’s small frown and blink. That split second where he hung frozen in time before he clutched his forearm and screamed, the lighter skidding off into the shadows.
I didn’t even get a second to check if Eli was safe because the vamp lifted his leg to stomp on my ribs. I caught his foot and, channeling a Zev move, bit the vampire’s Achilles’ tendon. Its hard, ropy feel was disgusting, and I gagged before I could tear it out, so I summoned Delilah to hobble the bastard.
He collapsed and I rose up with a yell of triumph, which was cut short by a woman’s scream, followed by two gunshots.
The brown wolf shifter eyed my fallen attacker with a feral gleam, leaving Mateo’s body for the second vamp, and bounded in for the kill.
It was too late to help Mateo, but I could still tourniquet Rahm’s hand before he bled out and find out what the actual fuck he was doing.
The Israeli man screamed again, this time because another hyena shifter had torn into his intestines.
“Fuuuuck!” I was surrounded by enemies feasting on both fallen humans and their own kind, and I had no idea where most of my team was. The only positive spin I could put on this nightmare was that Rahm’s body was doing an admirable job of soaking up the gas.
“Choke on that, asshole!” Emmett roared and staggered to his feet from the other side of a car.
Delilah and I raced to the golem’s side.
His hyena attacker gasped and writhed, clawing at his mouth.
Emmett held the broken remnant of his cane. Shards of wood were strewn on the ground, but I didn’t see the dragon head until the hyena twisted his head my way, the silver top jammed down his throat.
“I did good, right?” Emmett said, wild-eyed.
“You did great, buddy.”
He squinted at me. “You’ve got a little blood…” He touched his lips, then his eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
An engine’s rumble cut through the noise, and Eli leaned out of the open side door of the passenger van pulling up. “Hurry!”
