Dragon's Fake Wedding Date - Riley Storm Page 0,71

myself agreeing with a vampire,” Rann growled. “But you can’t have her.”

The female vampire grinned and her jaw came unhinged, fangs sprouting from the upper teeth. She grabbed Karen and forced the woman to her knees.

Not today, Rann thought, feeling his dragon come to him. The confines of the church were small, but he could adapt. Scales replaced skin. Wings burst from his shoulders and curled flat against his back. Horns sprouted from his head and his fingers became claws.

There were more screams from the church, but Rann didn’t have time to look. His focus was on the three vampires in front of him.

There’s a fourth somewhere. Don’t forget that.

He suddenly feared that it was out front, waiting for anyone who came rushing out. Like he’d told Gayle to do.

Fear spurred him onward, and he went at the Hunter in a furious onslaught of blows. Vampire skin parted and split, and he drove the Hunter clear across the altar to the wall of the church.

Jed closed in from his side, but Rann was ready for that. He ducked under one of the Hunter’s strikes, closed his hand in a fist, and jerked it upward. A sheet of flame erupted in Jed’s path, stopping the young vampire cold.

Rann spun, lashing out with a leg, and dropped the Hunter onto his back. He grabbed the vamp by the leg and flung him back out the gaping hole where the stained-glass window had been.

The female vampire leapt on his back with a shriek, hammering at him with viciously sharp nails that gouged his scales but didn’t quite penetrate them. Rann roared, reaching up behind him with both arms.

“Shit,” he muttered, grabbing on to the only thing he could find and hauling forward.

The vampire screeched as he slammed her into the ground by her breasts. It wasn’t his finest moment, but in a fight to the death, there were no rules. Rann blasted her with fire, melting her face beyond recognition. Then, he bent down and, without hesitation, tore her jaw from her face.

Spinning, he flung the lower mandible like a frisbee. It smashed into Jed’s face just as the vampire cleared the wall of fire, breaking his nose and sending him stumbling backward in surprise.

Rann leapt for him, intending to finish the job. “You lying sonofabitch,” he snarled. “You set us up!”

Jed shrieked as Rann grabbed hold of his head and squeezed.

Bone shuddered, and then Rann let fire fill both of his palms. There was only one place for it to escape. Through Jed’s ears.

The vampire howled and let loose with the most spine-shivering cries Rann had ever heard as his brain quite literally melted away.

He dropped the lifeless corpse just as a woman screamed. Rann turned to see that the Hunter was back, and he was advancing on the bride, Karen, who was crouched next to the unconscious Mikey.

The Hunter was hurt, and its eyes were wild with fury. Rann wasn’t sure if it was even thinking straight at this point.

He rushed forward to intervene.

Karen was a huge bitch, and he hated her. Part of him wanted to let her die because he felt it was what she deserved for the way she’d treated Gayle. To betray someone you called your best friend so thoroughly like that…he couldn’t fathom it.

But she was still a human.

“Hey, ugly!” he called as he walked forward. “Yeah, I’m talking to you.”

The vampire hissed at him. Its skin had turned almost black again, like the day it had come through the Gate from the Otherworld. Rann wasn’t sure what that meant, but he doubted it would be good.

“That’s right,” Rann said, keeping its attention focused on him. “Look at me.”

The vampire hissed again. It was as if it was losing its cohesive, intelligent thoughts and reverting into some sort of primitive state. Was that how it healed, perhaps? Or was Rann about to find something out about vampires he’d never known before?

It sure does feel like my lucky day…

“Get away from her,” Rann growled, flinging a small ball of flames at the vampire. “I said get back!”

He charged forward as the vampire lunged at Karen.

The two collided, and Rann’s eyes went wide as the vampire grabbed his hands and spread them wide, overpowering him with raw strength.

“You can’t have her!” he shouted as he saw the vampire’s eyes dart past him to Karen.

The creature redoubled its efforts, driving Rann to his knees. Bellowing his rage, Rann drew on his dragon strength and his fear for Gayle and