Page 111 of Stalk the Dark
Oh no. No, no, no. “You have to stop. You can stop this.”
“I know Ican. But I won’t because I don’t want to.”
His tone was cold. Dead. Inhuman. I’d fucked up.I’d fucked up so badly. I’d seen what I wanted to see, humanized a monster and now…
I twisted in his arms trying to be free. “Agatha! Agatha, run!” Her head whipped up and she finally saw us, high above. “Run! Run now!”
Her eyes widened in horror.
Ezekiel laughed. “There is no escape.”
The music stopped.
The vampires attacked.
“NO!” I slammed my heel onto the top of Ezekiel’s foot with enough force to elicit a grunt of pain. His grip slackened, and I twisted free and bolted through the door that led to the ballroom and down a set of curving stairs. Boots thundered behind me, but I didn’t stop to check who was following me.
I had to get into the room.
I had to save Agatha and the humans.
If that meant killing some nobles, then so be it.
The stairs ended in a single door. I slammed it open and burst into a room echoing with screams and decorated with blood.
“Agatha!” I rushed at the vampire grappling to get to her neck and punched him in the head. He let go of her, momentarily stunned, and I dragged her toward me.
Vampires hissed and snarled as Hemlock and Ordell fought to free humans from their grasp.
They’d come with me. Thank God.
“Stay behind me.” I put myself between Agatha and the vampires circling us.
“Orina, oh God. Orina, get me out of here,” she sobbed.
“I will. I won’t let them hurt you.”
But there were too many of them and only three of us. Ordell went down with four vampires on his back, bursting up a moment later with a roar that made my insides shake, only to be overcome once more, while Hemlock fought two vampires who had him penned into a corner. The rest of the nobles had gone completely feral—feasting and fucking the women with abandon.
Horror dug its claws into my mind, and terror clamped a fist around my heart. Too many humans down. Too many dead. I couldn’t save them.
But I could save Agatha.
There had to be another exit. There! On the other side of the room.
I drew my blade, grabbed her hand, and sprinted for a door that the women must have come through.
Almost there.
A vampire leapt into my path. I swung my blade, taking off his head, then yanked open the door.
Ezekiel stood on the other side, his expression flat and emotionless. The world seemed to fall away, the horrific din behind me muting as our gazes locked with a snick. Hope flared inside me. “Ezekiel…please…”
His gaze flicked to a sobbing Agatha, then back to me. “This human matters to you?”
“Yes. Please, you have to let her?—”
A blow to the chest sent me flying across the room. The impact that followed stole my vision, threatening to drag me into darkness. For a moment, I was disembodied and floating above the carnage. Free from the twisted emotions that threatened to pin me to the mortal realm, and in the next I was trapped once more—pinned to the ground by a weight pressing to the back of my head as darkness closed in on my vision.
