Page 52 of The Way You Bite
Sensing danger in front instead of behind, he halted. He telepathically ordered TC to stop. In his peripheral, he saw TC dive for the cover of a large oak with knives ready.
“What’s wrong?” Vee asked.
“Shhh. Stay behind me. No sudden moves. Back up.” He pushed her behind him while backing them up slowly into the shadows, not that shadows would provide any sort of impediment to the sharp vision of a trained vampire.
In his communicator, TC said, “One on my left. Got him. One on your right.”
“Stay here.” Lexan pressed a knife into her hands. “Kill anything that’s not me.”
Lexan stalked through the woods, cringing when he crunched a dry leaf. He picked up the whisper of movement to his right. With a pivot, he prepared for attack. A vamp leaped at him, knife in hand ready to tear him to shreds. Old school. For a moment, he basked in the pleasure of a physical fight without guns. He even respected this warrior.
Lexan dodged. No time to prolong and enjoy the battle, though. Not with Vee relatively unprotected. “Leave now and I won’t pursue you.”
The vamp was fast as he parried and thrust at him, dancing around with his serrated silver blade. “Scared, wolf? You should be.”
Lexan was faster. “If you choose death, then so be it.” He swiped across the vamp’s wrist. The vamp’s knife fell.
Lexan struck lightning fast, slicing across the vamp’s neck and then driving his knife deep into his chest. He wondered if the body would corrode to ash in this dense forest, but cared not to ensure placement of the body where sunlight would hit it.
He returned to Vee, catching her hand before her knife hit its target, his chest. “It’s me.”
Warning flared in his mind. Another vamp. The vamp’s distinctive scent permeated his nostrils with a strong chaser smell of arousal and anger. He locked onto the threat.
Thirty yards away, Ambrose smiled. He targeted Lexan with a suppressed 9mm. Would he be crazy enough to confirm open warfare? This act would be considered way more than a little skirmish as part of the Stateside war.
Ambrose fired. Lexan jumped left, pulling Vee with him, and flung his knife toward Ambrose into a perfect mid-chest hit. The knife hit simultaneously with Ambrose’s second shot. Pain exploded in Lexan’s thigh.
Adrenaline surged. The official peace was over. Now they could finally deal with the virus openly. And lay down the payback the vamps deserved.
He’d deal with it later.
His priority was to get Vee out of here. Ambrose couldn’t get her back.
Within seconds, Ambrose was surrounded by his guards. His knife’s path hadn’t been a death hit. More of a slow-down hit. He and Ambrose would have their moment. Not tonight.
“Follow me,” Lexan ordered, ignoring the pain in his thigh.
A quarter-mile away, he yanked open the door of a dark-colored SUV. Vee hopped in.
“Get us out of here, Eric,” he ordered as he fell onto the backseat floor. TC jumped into the passenger front seat, pulled the door closed. The car squealed on the gravel as it kicked into gear.
TC said, “Our guys are on their way behind us.”
Lexan pulled himself up onto the seat and gripped his thigh, emitting a low curse.
“Oh, shit,” said TC. He leapt into action, climbing over the center console.
TC removed his belt from around his waist and wound it tightly around Lexan’s upper thigh. Deftly, he cut Lexan’s pants up to the wound. “One of those fuckers got him. It’s liquid silver. A death hit.”
