Page 41 of Fiendish Delights
‘I don’t know why you’re taking umbrage with me,’ he went on. ‘I should be the one having words with you.’
‘What? I’m the one who acted as bait and drew those vamps away from the tents. Plus, I saved our sorry arses by waking up when I did! There were five of those fuckers!’
‘I woke up too,’ he said pointedly. ‘And I savedyoursorry arse. Frankly, you’re lucky they didn’t rip you apart.’
Miriam’s knuckles tightened around the hilt of her sword, Slim cleared his throat nervously, his eyes flitting around him, and Becky shuddered.
Hugo glanced at them then returned his attention to me. ‘Anyway, I wasn’t talking about the vampires. I was talking about the rumour that I have some sort of fungus that’s affecting my sex life.’
I snapped my mouth closed.
‘Yes, Daisy. I saw your expression when that emerged. That rumour started because of you, didn’t it?’ He stepped towards me. ‘Tell me, were you trying to knock out your competition?’
Huh? ‘My competition?’
‘For my affections. Because you don’t have to worry on that score. If you want me that badly, I’m more than happy to oblige. All the other ladies can wait in line.’
Unbelievable. ‘I didn’t make up that story because I wanted to be the only one to get in your pants!’
His eyes glinted. ‘So youdowant to get into my pants.’
‘That’s not what I said!’
‘Um, guys?’ Rizwan squeaked. ‘I hate to be the one to break this up, but the vampire over there is starting to move again.’
I cursed then stomped over to the first vamp who’d been felled. His dark eyes were blinking up towards me, first in confusion and then with hungry desire as he registered that I was food. I flicked out a searing surge of fire to finish him off. When I glanced over my shoulder, Hugo was doing the same to the second vamp. Good.
‘I’m going back to bed,’ I sniffed. I wrapped my arms around my body and trudged away.
Unfortunately, I knew exactly why Hugo had turned the conversation away from the vamp attack to something ridiculous – if utterly embarrassing for us both.
It was still the middle of the night. The team’s anxiety was palpable, so he had wanted to change the subject and avoid voicing the obvious. Vampires didn’t usually roam in hordes, they were almost never found in the countryside, and there was no earthly reason why they’d have ventured to our campsite unless someone, something– or, most likely, some damned fiend – had sent them to find us.
Chapter
Thirteen
Hester was hyperventilating. ‘The undead? The undead were here last night? And they nearly killed us?’
‘If it helps,’ I told her, ‘they probably wouldn’t have bothered with you. You’re too small.’
She stared at me. ‘Is that supposed to be comforting?’
‘Everything’s fine,’ I said. ‘It’s been taken care of.’
‘Has it?Hasit? How do you know? There’s an entire graveyard out there! What if all of them rise up?’
‘They’ve been dead too long, Hes,’ Otis said. ‘You know vamps don’t work like that.’
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. ‘Then where did the army of vampires come from last night?’
‘It wasn’t an army.’
Her bottom lip jutted out. ‘It might as well have been. You should have woken us.’
If anything, her reaction only reinforced my gratitude that both brownies had slept through the attack. ‘It’s daylight. You’re safe now,’ I reassured her.
‘Until the sun goes down later today.’ She scowled. ‘As that damned ball of fire is wont to do.’
