Page 73 of A Vampire Bewitched
Ignoring her weak attempts to strangle it, it lowered its head and pulled its lips back, tongue flicking out to lick her face. Gagging, she turned her face away only to see the other two had joined them and were eagerly waiting their turns.
Tongues flicked over sharp teeth as they palmed themselves disgustingly, grunting at the feel of their own hands and the sight of her wrestling with their companion.
She released a low, keening cry as hopelessness washed over her. It was over. She could feel her strength waning against its superior might with every second. Once one of them got its fangs into her, they’d fight over her like dogs.
A ragged sob escaped her as she thought of Nik finding what little would be left of her. He would blame himself for not protecting her. For not insisting she stay inside. The guilt would eat him alive. He didn’t deserve that. It wasn’t his fault she hadn’t listened to him.
Emma floundered a bit as these thoughts flew through her head, but then she gritted her teeth and rallied herself. She couldn’t let that happen.
With a yell, she bucked underneath the thing in one last ditch effort to get it off of her. Her muscles screamed in agony, yet she fought like a wild thing. She kept it up as long as she could, even when the only thing she seemed to accomplish was arousing the thing more. Until, finally, she could feel her muscles giving out on her. With one last feeble attempt to save herself, she curled her fingers on its throat and squeezed its trachea.
As its eyes bulged and it struggled to breath, she dared to hope…but she’d forgotten its two sidekicks.
Before she could cause any real harm, her hand was ripped away by one of the others. It pulled both of her arms up over her head and held them there.
The beast on top of her gave her a look of pure evil as it rasped and coughed. It pulled its lips back again, exposing those razor-sharp fangs.
Emma froze in terror as it reared its head back to strike.
A terrified scream tore from her throat, and a deafening roar joining it. Before she’d even processed the sound, the weight of the monster was ripped from her body. A second later, her wrists were released.
Emma lay there, unmoving, not yet fully comprehending she was free. She listened to the sickening noises around her in a daze. Unearthly screams blended with the sounds of crunching bone and the wet sucking noises of flesh being ripped from flesh, until she thought shewasgoing to vomit after all.
Then all was silent.
Cautiously, Emma turned her head to the right. She blinked, not quite believing what she was seeing.
Nikulas stood with his back to her, sides heaving, fists clenched at his sides. Scattered around him were piles of rotting, grey flesh, ripped into pieces so small they were unrecognizable as any particular body part.
The wind picked up at that moment, and her stomach convulsed from the smell as the pieces started to flake away.
Chapter 41
Pulling his hood back up over his singed hair, Nik swallowed hard. Slowly, fearfully, he turned around. But he kept his eyes closed, afraid of what he would see. Afraid he hadn’t made it on time. She hadn’t moved or made a sound since he’d torn the creature off of her.
Taking a deep breath, he opened them to see Emma’s wide hazel eyes trained on him, shock reflected deep within the depths. Her body was deathly still. Her face was white. Blood trickled from slashes on her arms.
He stared at her lovely face, those invisible hands squeezing his heart harder and harder, and then…
She blinked.
Please, please tell me I’m not fucking hallucinating. Tell me I arrived in time.
He’d fled the cave before the sun had completely set, Aiden close on his heels. They’d stayed to the shadows, following the lure of Emma’s blood to the creek.
He didn’t hesitate as he was pulled to the scene of those things hunched over something on the ground. He knew it was Emma. A red haze had clouded his vision when he’d ripped the first one off of her, quickly annihilating the other two as well. He’d barely realized what he was doing.
However, he sure as hell was feeling it now.
Emma inhaled sharply. “What happened to your face?” Her voice was so hoarse from screaming, he barely understood her.
Falling hard onto his knees, Nik groped for Emma’s hand and brought it to his burned mouth, kissing her palm and holding it there. His eyes burned with tears he couldn’t shed, and a dry, heart-wrenching sob tore its way out of his scalded lungs.
“Nik? What the hell happened to your face?” Emma rasped. She lifted her other hand, but hesitated before touching the blackened skin.
But he couldn’t answer her. He couldn’t speak. He could only kneel there, her small hand engulfed within his larger ones, his eyes hidden behind their burned lids.
Aiden dropped down into her view, squatting on his haunches next to Nik. “Hey there, poppet. Brilliant idea you had here, luring them out this way. But you really should’ve waited for us to help you.”
