Dream Walker (Bailey Spade 1)

Fangs sliding out, he hisses, “I’ll make this slow.”

Chapter Forty

I spit out blood and croak, “I told Kit. She knows—she knows about Hekima. About seeing him in the dream world. You won’t get away with this.”

There’s a flash of movement at the end of the corridor.

Yep. There’s no doubt now.

I sneak a peek through Filth’s legs.

Creeping toward us are Ariel and Felix. He’s dressed in a tux, and she’s wearing a dress that shows off every curve. In her hand is a butterfly knife. I don’t even want to think about where she hid it when they went through castle security.

They must be here for the Mandate ceremony Felix mentioned.

I can’t get my hopes up, though. Without his robot suit or some powerful weapon, Felix is basically human. Ariel is another matter. She’s an uber and they’re strong—but not quite vampire strong. And Ariel has issues with vampires.

Filth grips my throat and lifts me off the ground with one hand. “I believe your Kit bullshit as much as I believe in Hekima’s miraculous resurrection.” With a swift chomp, he sinks his fangs into my neck, startling a pained cry from me.

It hurts even more because it’s the grossest thing to ever happen to me.

He begins to suck—and that’s when Ariel rips him away by the shoulder while stabbing him in the torso.

My tailbone hits the floor, hard. Gritting my teeth against a wave of nauseating pain, I scoot away from the combatants, clasping my bleeding neck. Vampire saliva is known to act as a coagulant, but I’ve never been bitten and have no idea how long it’ll take for my neck to stop bleeding. Also, gross.

Ignoring the stab wound, Filth throws a punch at Ariel’s face. She dodges, rips the knife out, and stabs him an inch lower.

Felix kneels next to me. “Are you okay?”

“Help me up,” I rasp, extending my free hand toward him. My throat’s in agony, and not just from the wound on the side. Filth all but crushed my trachea while lifting me off the ground.

Felix grips my hand and helps me to my feet while Ariel and Filth fight, moving so fast it’s hard to follow them.

Swaying in place, I pull my hand away from the wound in my neck. The bleeding seems to have stopped. Seeing that I’m not in imminent danger of dying, Felix jumps in to help Ariel, but Filth knocks him out with a punch to the temple. As Felix collapses, Ariel uses the distraction to slice a bone-deep gash in Filth’s bicep. The vampire grunts in pain as blood sprays them both.

If Felix weren’t already knocked out, he’d faint from the gore. I’m less sensitive to these things, and even I feel woozy. Or maybe I’m just woozy from the blood loss. Either way, it’s my turn to help Ariel—and I want it to count. Ignoring the pain in my bruised throat, I sprint back to my jail cell, grab the heavy padlock I defeated earlier, and rush back.

Filth smashes an elbow into Ariel’s solar plexus, same as he did with me. But Ariel must’ve done an obscene number of crunches and built abs of steel, because she keeps fighting as if nothing’s happened.

I wait for a moment when Filth’s back is to me, then lunge forward and slam the padlock into the back of his head.

What would’ve stunned or knocked out a human only seems to distract the vampire. He throws a punch at my face. I duck. He still manages to block Ariel’s next hit.

I jump back and hurl the padlock at his head with all my might. He twists out of the way—and that’s what puts his throat within reach of Ariel’s blade.

Whoosh.

Blood gushes from the gaping neck wound.

Puck, I might’ve underestimated Ariel’s strength. She’s nearly beheaded Filth with one slice.

Some sort of gurgling sound escapes Filth’s mouth, but Ariel takes no chances. She chops at his throat again and again, until the head and body separate completely—a wound no vampire in history has been able to heal.

Filth’s torso collapses to the ground, and his head rolls over to Felix. At that moment, Felix’s eyes flutter open. As soon as he sees the bloody mess next to him, he faints again.

Ariel stares at her bloody knife with eerie fascination. She looks—oh crap, she looks on the verge of licking the blade.

This is it. Her vampire blood addiction is being put to a real test.

I hold my breath. It’s better if she does this on her own. She’s at the stage where what she needs most is to believe in her ability to resist temptation.

I, too, was recently on my way to addiction, but I feel zero urge to imbibe any of the crimson liquid around us. Then again, I should find the situation a lot more gross than I actually do. Is that a bad sign? Still, I’ve got a feeling that if I avoid vamp blood for a while, it will eventually seem as yucky as other bodily fluids.