By Hook or by Wolf

“Think, Amy, think,” I say. I shove the weapon back in my bag. How can I make the most of this situation? There is no fucking way I’m getting caught with two dead vamp bodies, so I pull them slowly out of sight from the road. I glance over at the guy.

“Thanks,” he whispers weakly.

“Good, so you aren’t dead,” I say.

“Ha,” he says. “Not yet,” but I can tell he’s not going to last very long if I don’t get him some sort of help. I hurry to him.

“Where are you hurt?” I ask.

“I’m okay,” he says. “They didn’t bite me.”

“Did they tag you?” The vampires have gotten sneakier and sneakier. Now if they don’t kill you, they might tag you. They’ll insert a microchip in your body and then follow you wherever you go. This is how they find where you live. This is how they find your family. This is how they find everything.

This is how they take us out.

“No.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Wait,” the man motions toward the vampire bodies.

“They’re dead,” I say. “I killed them.”

“I saw,” he said. “And I promise to help you with your fighting skills later.”

Really?

What the fuck is wrong with my fighting skills?

“But you need to take their jackets,” he says. “And their pants. You might need them. Those are hard to get.”

I should ask him how he knows all of this, but the truth is that he’s right. I can’t pass over two Mountain uniforms. It’s simply stupid. With a sigh, I hurry to the bodies and carefully take off their jackets. It’s hard to do and vampires smell really, really weird. I don’t know why some people think they’re so fucking sexy. To me they’re just nasty, walking corpses.

I yank the pants from their bodies and bundle them with the jackets. I shove everything under my arm and hope I don’t fucking drop the clothing while I’m running. Then I move back to the guy whose life I just saved and help him to his feet.

“Thank you,” he says. “Guess I’ll be going.”

“Fat fucking chance,” I say. “Those guys wanted to kill you. I want to know why.” He doesn’t look like he was imprisoned. He’s attractive, but not huge. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would go head-to-head with some vamps, so why were they after this dude?

He looks at me warily, but after a moment of hesitation, he nods. Vampires don’t just randomly attack people. Besides, no matter what he’s says, there’s something wrong with him. I know that if I walk away now, he’s definitely going to die.

I’m not about to let that happen.

We have to make it two more blocks to Daisy. I press a button and turn my comm back on.

“What the fuck?” She squeals.

“I’m on my way,” I tell her. “Three minutes out, tops.”

“When this is over, we are so breaking up,” she says.

“I know,” I tell her.

I turn the microphone back off and look at my new friend.

“Shall we go?” I ask.

He takes my hand and nods.

Then we’re off.