I caught the knife and braced for the fight. We were way outnumbered, and I didn’t know if vampires were stronger than shifters. There was only one way to find out.
I had trained with knives, but I would have practiced more had I known one day I’d be up against these bastards. They were fast. Eerily fast. Liam stabbed one through the heart and it decayed before my eyes.
Without knowing what happened, I was on my back with my breath knocked out of me and a skinny chick on my chest. Her fangs were out as she hissed at me. The knife flew from my grip which didn’t matter since her knee was pinning my arm down.
I wrapped my other hand around her neck, testing her strength. She looked skeletal, but she was as strong as me.
“You can’t strangle me,” she said before jerking her head to the side, freeing herself from my grasp.
In a blur of movement, she sunk her teeth into my neck. It stung for a second before it turned to a pleasure I’d never experienced. It felt so good I slid my hand into her hair, pressing her head closer to me. I wanted her to take it all. To drain me.
Glamor, a voice in the back of my head said.
Just as I pulled myself out of it, the pleasure ended, and the chick fell from me. I looked up to see Liam. He held the knife out to me, and I took it as I rose to my feet.
“You must be faster. Do not look them in the eye.”
“That would have been nice to know earlier,” I said rubbing my neck. It had already healed, but there was a tingling sensation where her teeth had pierced the skin. “I won’t turn now, will I?”
“No. There’s no time to explain, but no.”
I couldn’t let them distract me again, and the next one who came at me got a knife through their right eye. It felt weird to stab someone through their eye, but it worked so I didn’t care how weird it was.
They knocked me down a couple more times, but no others got their teeth in me. By the time we killed Cybil’s babies, they’d bitten us all at least once, and their blood stained our clothes.
“Well, I guess we move on and see what else is in store for us,” I said.
Philip was oddly subdued. I’d seen him in a few fights recently and he’d always been overly excited. Happy even. Now he seemed depressed. I wasn’t sure if it was sadness over killing his fellow vampires or because Cybil was here. I was leaning more toward the Cybil thing though.
We moved slowly through what was once a house but was now mostly a pile of stone. The first room was empty. They’d set the second room up as a bedroom, but no one was there. It was the third room where we found Isaac.
They still had him tied to the board in the awkward X position. He was naked and blood still marked his body even though the wounds had healed. His head hung forward again telling me she’d tortured him to the point of exhaustion.
Without thinking, I ran to him. I placed my hands in his torso and he flinched. “No, Isaac, it’s me. It’s Ember.”
I pushed the board back, so it was horizontal and started untying the restraints.
He opened his eyes. “Em…”
Again, without thinking, I leaned forward and kissed him lightly. I felt a sense of relief when he responded. If he was well enough to kiss me back, he was going to be okay.
“Red, we’re not alone,” Liam said, reminding me where we were.
I turned around to see Stella flanked by more of her musclemen. She had a slight smirk on her face as she watched me.
“Hmm, kissing another man in front of your mate,” she said shifting her gaze between me and Liam. “How naughty of you. I like it.”
I glanced at Liam. His jaw twitched but otherwise he didn’t show any reaction.
“There’s no time for a lover’s spat,” she said. “Move away from Isaac.”
Ignoring her I continued untying him. I had one arm and one leg free when a shifter knocked me to the side. No one had seen him enter through the opening in the wall behind Isaac’s head, so he had a clear shot at me.
Liam took care of him while I stood up and tried to move toward Isaac again, but another shifter came through the wall with three vampires. Apparently, we hadn’t killed all Cybil’s babies.
Liam pulled me to stand between him and Philip. Philip’s breathing had slowed, and his energy read more vamp than anything else. The way he could change between shifter and vamp was intriguing… for another time.
With her buddies distracting us, Stella moved to stand beside Isaac. She pulled a rolling tray with various tools on top along with her. Daring to take my eyes from the vampires, I watched her push the board with Isaac through the opening in the wall. She returned for the rolling tray, whistled, and ducked back through the hole.