it remained. The thing was smoking as it hunted her.
She couldn’t decide if she wanted to laugh or cry more as it closed in on her.
Lucien’s chains rattled as he kicked and punched at the Savages pulling and grasping at him but they provided enough room that he could fight with them on. He would not go back to that cell. He was weak, but they’d have to kill him before he ever allowed them to imprison him again.
Grasping the heads of two Savages, he grinned as he bashed them together. Bone gave way as the skulls caved in and their eyes bulged. He shoved the Savages away before turning over.
Clawing at the dirt, he rushed forward. One of his hands brushed against a broken piece of bar as a hand landed on his shoulder. Gripping the bar, he spun and plunged it straight through the vamp’s eye before yanking it free again. He turned it in his hand and used it to batter the temple of the next Savage coming at him.
His body thrummed with pleasure as he beat and maimed more Savages. It had been so long since he’d killed; he needed this release almost as much as he did blood. He relished the brutality he unleashed and the screams of his victims as he released the demon part of him.
This was what he’d been born to do. He was a killer, and he loved it.
Staggering back from the crush of bodies, he used the foot-long section of bar to beat away the Savages pursuing him. He was almost to the end of the tunnel when hands clawed at his back.
Unwilling to tear his gaze away from the horde of assholes pursuing him, he twisted his head to discover that one of the vamps who chased after the woman had returned to the tunnel. The sun had probably driven it back inside, but the other Savage was not with it. Which meant it was still chasing her.
Lucien’s mouth went dry, and his hands constricted on the bar. He’d beat every last one of these things to death if that’s what it took to keep her safe. He twisted away from the clawing hands of the vamp and, ducking low, sank the bar into its stomach.
With a loud bellow, he lifted the Savage off the ground and ran toward the end of the tunnel. The Savage clawed at him over the top of the bar. Its fingers tearing into his arms shredded his skin, but he didn’t feel it as his pulse thundered in his ears.
Where was the woman? Had they done something to her? He’d make them pay if they had.
Rushing into the sun’s rays, he gave another angry shout as he threw the Savage away from him. It howled, and its skin blistered and smoked as its body bounced down the rocks to the culvert below.
The sound of rocks bouncing against rocks drew his attention to his toes hanging over the edge of the ditch. One more step and he would tumble down boulders and to the bottom of the fifteen-foot ravine where he would join the now flaming Savage.
When he threw himself away from the edge, hands grasped his arms and tried to pull him back into the tunnel. He tore free of them and lurched to the side where he plastered himself to the rocky wall running along the edge of the culvert.
The scrape of sneakers against stone drew his attention, and he looked up to discover the woman forty feet away from him. The Savage pursuing her was smoking, but it tolerated the sun better than the rest of its friends.
“Shit,” he whispered when he realized he was on the opposite side of the tunnel opening than them. He had to cross back in front of it to get to her.
As he watched them, one of the Savages crept into the day. Smoke rose from its hair as its skin blistered, and it squinted its eyes against the burning sun. Despite its burning flesh, it didn’t duck back inside. He was close enough to withstand the pain if it meant recapturing him.
When it charged at him, Lucien grasped its head and shoved it to the side. It released a startled cry as it bounced and flailed down the rocky embankment. Flames licked over its back and consumed its clothes when it came to a stop at the bottom.
When another Savage poked its head out of the tunnel, everything around Lucien screeched to a halt.