Page 55 of Wonder
The vampire was fast.I didn’t know how I’d been able to hit his chest with my first shot, but at least it made him wary of me. I retreated toward the front door to give myself room to maneuver, but now the asshole was darting back and forth, no doubt to make it harder for me to aim. He was succeeding.
Then he snarled and turned to run toward Simon. He reached behind his back and pulled out a gun of his own. Fuck! Jackson flattened themself over Nicky as the vampire passed them. I ran after him, but I couldn’t shoot without risking hitting Simon as he fought the other one by the back door.
In an instant, the one I’d been fighting had his gun pointed at Simon’s head only a few feet away.
“No!” I fired without even analyzing my aim, somehow hitting my target in the back of his head. But I was too late; he’d done the same to Simon. Both of them went down at once. “Simon!”
Our bond snapped back into view, brilliant and glittering. He was still alive, thank fuck. The bond wanted me closer to him, but it wasn’t painful, so it could wait. I pointed my gun at the vampire who’d been fighting Simon.
He raised his eyebrows and smirked. I couldn’t hear well since my ears were ringing because of the gunfire, but I thought he said, “Simon is bonded? How cute.” Then he lifted his sword and swung it down toward Simon’s neck. I emptied my gun into him, chest, arms, shoulder. I should’ve gone for the head, but I was too focused on preventing him from swinging the sword to think of it. He staggered back, the tip of his sword hitting Simon with a glancing blow near his temple. I winced in sympathy, but our bond didn’t even flicker. He was okay.
I darted forward, snatching up the baseball bat Simon had dropped when he fell. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Except the vampire ignored me and, despite the bullet wounds covering his body, lunged sword-first at Jackson instead. Jackson reared up to meet him, claws out and fangs bared. They jumped at the vampire, making him step back. Jackson ripped at the vampire with their claws, too close for him to swing the sword. The vampire gouged Jackson with the claws on his other hand, and Nicky screamed. But the vampire couldn’t get any purchase, his claws sliced through Jackson but didn’t catch on any muscle or skin. A few drops of glittering goo hit the floor, but Jackson didn’t seem injured otherwise.
As Jackson and the vampire grappled, I ran over to the sofa and pulled Nicky over the back, setting him on his feet right behind me. He put one arm over my shoulder, and I nudged him to walk backwards towards the front door. I held the bat up, just in case the vampire came at us.
The vampire shrieked as Jackson dug their claws into his sides, but then he got his sword in between them against Jackson’s neck. Jackson let go, so their neck must’ve been more vulnerable than the rest of them. They retreated a few steps, as if to regroup, but they tripped over Simon, and their back legs went out fromunder them. The vampire leapt forward and swung the sword across Jackson’s neck, separating their head. I gasped in horror as glittery magical goo fountained out of the wound.
“No!” Nicky tried to go to Jackson, but his legs collapsed beneath him. Fuck.
“Nicky! Stand up!” I couldn’t lean over to pick him up, because the vampire was strolling casually toward us with a gloating expression, swinging his sword idly.
Nicky hauled himself to his feet, using my free arm and the waistband of my jeans for leverage. He put his arms around my belly, and I supported him with my hand on his waist. He leaned toward the vampire, his face contorted with hatred. “No more killing!” His hands glowed, sparkling with magic and pressing into my stomach. I could feel his energy pouring into my core.
“Nicky!” I was torn between watching the vampire and trying to see whatever Nicky was doing.
The vampire froze in place, still several feet away, and he held up his free hand. “Wait. We can talk about this.”
My eyesight sharpened, and everyone’s connections and magical cores became the brightest things in the room. Was this what it was like for Simon? The mating bond between us, imperfect as it was, glowed in a magnificent rainbow river. Nicky’s friend connections glinted gold. The vampire’s only connection was to the other one on the floor. It wasn’t even a friend connection; it was more like one you’d have to a teammate or colleague. Sad.
The vampire started to rush forward, raising his sword to attack, but everything seemed to slow down. I knew exactly what to do. It was as if I’d always known, but I’d needed the mate bond with Simon and the magical boost from Nicky to unlock the ability.
As if I had all the time in the world, I sent my magic out to surround the vampire’s magical core. And then, smiling as I met his eyes, I used my magic to squish his out of existence.
Time sped up again, and he fell on his face with a thump, his sword clattering on the floor next to him. The other vampire was still alive, so I did the same to him, squeezing his core until it popped.
Nicky, panting with effort, was still flooding me with his magic. I dropped the baseball bat and put both of my arms around him. “Nicky, stop. We’re safe now. Keep your magic. You did good, thank you.”
The energy flow into me stopped, and he gasped out a sob. “You did it. I wasn’t strong enough to do it myself.”
“That was smart of you to combine our magic.” My view of his connections and mine were fading back to normal.
I half-carried, half-dragged Nicky past the dead vampire. He’d probably set his recovery back quite a bit, but at least he was alive, and the danger was over. When we got to Jackson’s body, Nicky let out another sob and reached out for them, so I set him down on the floor. I knelt next to Simon, trying not to look at the bullet entry wound on the back of his head. The sword tip had caught him just above and behind his ear. He’d lost a little hair, but the wound had stopped bleeding.
I turned to Nicky to see if he knew whether I should try to feed Simon, but he’d crawled over to Jackson’s head and was pushing it back toward their body. Both, er, pieces were still in panther form, and my heart ached to see the dullness in their eyes, the runes in their fur no longer visible. Their connections were gone. They didn’t exactly have a magical core—it was more likethey were made of magic—but that glow had faded to nothing. As Nicky pushed Jackson’s head along the floor, it dug a path through the glittering goo.
“What are youdoing?” I wasn’t proud of how scandalized I sounded.
“This.” He’d gotten over to Jackson’s body, and he put one hand on their shoulder and the other on the top of their head, then he shoved the two, er, parts together. The glittering goo glowed at the seam. I sucked in a breath and gripped Simon’s hand. Was Jackson still alive? Nicky didn’t comment, just heaved a relieved sigh and patted Jackson’s shoulder. Then he folded his arms on their back and leaned his head down onto them, closing his eyes.
I looked down at Simon. I wanted to cry, but I held it in. Nicky didn’t need to see that right now. I wished Simon would open his eyes. I’d give a lot to see him smile at me again. I knew he’d heal from the bullet in his head eventually, but how long would it take? The bond was super happy to feel us touching, but it didn’t give me any hints as to what to do. “I bet I need to feed you.” But how?
“Hello? Reno? Simon? Can someone hear me?”
Shit. “Cal?” Was he still on the line? I stood up, the mating bond protesting my leaving Simon, but it still wasn’t doing the pain thing it’d done this morning. “Can you hear me?”
“Reno! Thank fuck. Are you okay?”
I found Simon’s phone still on the couch cushion where he’d left it. “Yeah. The vampires are dead. Nicky’s okay, but he used a lot of his magic. Simon took a bullet to the head, so he’s unconscious, but he’ll be fine, I think. Jackson, um, got theirhead cut off.” Cal made a distressed noise. “Uh, but Nicky put it back on? I’m not sure....”
