this building was built from thick concrete. It was no wonder the noise from the deejay was just a dull thud outside.
Even here in the hallway it was significantly muffled. So much so she heard the door at the top of the hallway slam. Even a human would have heard it, so she knew it was okay to glance over her shoulder.
The female vampire sashayed toward them in a long, seductive, electric-blue dress that clung to her slender curves. Rich red lipstick painted her lips. She walked in six-inch stilettos like they were sneakers. God, this vamp was such a bloody cliché.
“My wife.” The male vamp’s mouth was at her ear. “You don’t mind if she joins us, do you?”
She scanned the hallway for cameras and spotted one above the door entrance on the opposite corner. Ignoring the vamp whose hands were clamped tight on her hips, she turned in his arms and saw the other camera at the opposite end of the narrow corridor. It was pointed at the exit door.
“What are you doing?” His fingers bit into her skin.
“Looking at the cameras,” the female vamp observed as she approached. “Looks like she’s nervous of us. I wonder why?” Then she inhaled deeply, her eyes silvered. “Oh, she smells so wonderful.”
“I know.” His voice rumbled in her ear. “I caught her scent as soon as she entered the club.”
It was hard to ignore them, but she needed to concentrate. Lifting a hand, she flicked her fingers and sent out magic toward the first camera.
She twisted in his hold and did the same to the other.
“What the fuck?” He shoved her into the wall with enough force to cause her head to crack against the concrete.
She winced at the slight ache and glared at the two vamps.
They might not have seen her magic, but they sensed its energy.
“She’s a witch!” The female vampire smacked her lover’s biceps. “You fool.”
A witch.
That’s what most supernaturals thought.
Oh, how she wished it were true.
Life would be so much easier if she were a mere witch.
“I saw. I saw what you were going to do to that girl here tonight.” She was quiet, her words just above a whisper, but she knew they could hear her. “I saw what you’ve done to all the girls before.”
Violation, blood, gore, terror.
They were psychopaths. Or sociopaths. She always got those two mixed up. Either way, they were particularly nasty feckers.
“You can’t do that anymore.”
“And I suppose you’re going to be the one to stop us?” The female vampire laughed.
Such arrogance.
And there was something about the dynamic between the two, something she’d missed in the visions.
The female was the one in charge. Which usually meant she was the oldest and therefore the strongest.
Keeping her right hand behind her back where the vamps couldn’t see, magic tingled at her fingertips as she conjured one of the wooden stakes she’d left on her bed back at the hotel.
Without a word, she moved.
She was a blur.
Unstoppable.
It all happened in two seconds.
Her wooden stake plunged with precise accuracy into the female vamp’s chest, up underneath the rib cage to pierce the heart.
The vampire’s silver eyes widened in outrage before her entire being burst into ash.
She was so shocked by her first vampire kill, she could only stare at the cloud of supernatural dust that caught in the harsh light of the aluminum bars on the ceiling.
Rookie mistake, that, losing focus.
An animalistic roar filled the corridor seconds before the male vampire slammed her to the floor. Burning pain flared up her neck, disorienting her for a moment until he lifted his head and she stared, aghast.
His long incisors, his lips, his mouth were covered in … her.
Wet gushed from her neck even as she felt the tingle of her skin repairing itself.
The bastard had torn out her throat.
His eyes widened as he watched her heal in a way no ordinary supernatural could.
And there was that burn in her chest again.
Except worse.
It was growing in a blaze and suddenly, it wasn’t the vampire she saw in front of her. It was him.
It was them.
And they deserved to die for what they did to him.
The rage consumed her.
It was like a black veil over her eyes.
When it eventually lifted, there was another pile of dust in the corridor.
What had happened …
Tears filled her eyes as she looked at her blood-covered hands. The rust of it was thick in her fingernails, like she’d clawed someone apart. Her hair swung into her vision and she saw it was