tore, blood poured, and slowly, I broke all the connecting tissue and threw the head aside. Heath stood over me, looking out into the darkness. I followed his gaze and saw red eyes growing larger.
“Fuck. He was supposed to report us dead, wasn’t he?” I asked softly.
“Yes, and this is probably the clean-up if we weren’t,” Heath muttered back. “Jabari?”
“Alive when I got a whiff of him, but I don’t know what sort of state he’s in. Can we do this?” I swallowed, hearing the running vampires speeding toward us. They wouldn’t be as strong as the ones in the park, but they were healthy. We weren’t.
“We’re going to try,” he growled. “Jacky—”
I didn’t get to hear what he said as a vampire landed on the SUV behind us. I turned and met it as it jumped for me. I landed squarely on my back and tried to roll backward, kicking up at the same time, sending the vampire flying. I went all the way over and tried to stand. One barreled into me, and I felt ribs crack. I roared and grabbed its arms and slowly pulled them off my waist, my muscles straining. I didn’t stop once I was free, breaking one of the arms at the elbow, listening to the resounding scream of pain in response.
I didn’t really have time to think. Going on instinct, I tossed that vampire to the ground and swung around, lifting an elbow to slam another in the jaw. When I saw one trying to crawl into the car, I reached out and grabbed it by the ankles as another jumped onto my back. I pulled with all my might, letting it drag over the broken glass and threw it away from the SUV.
I screamed as teeth hit my shoulder, and I reached up, grabbing a handful of hair. I ripped the locked jaw off my body, tearing open my shoulder, flipped the vampire over my shoulder with a roar of rage, and stomped down on its face twice.
It felt like a street fight, something I had never been a part of but had seen enough in the movies to get the gist. They wanted to dogpile me, and I kept having to toss them off, trying to keep them off me. I took a punch to the face, making my head throb, and stumbled for a second. Two tackled me together, and again, a set of fangs sank into me, this time on my arm. The second went for my neck, and I grabbed its neck before it could land the strike. I put my medical knowledge to use and squeezed tightly, putting all my werecat power into it. Everything beneath my hand crushed, and when I pulled, it all came with me. The vampire wasn’t dead, but it was completely incapacitated by the action. I threw aside the pieces of vampire in my hand, grabbed its bottom jaw, dropped open from the pain, and pulled it down further, breaking bones and causing more blood to rush out of the vampire’s mouth. It covered my face, neck, and chest now, putrid and stale, pumping out of veins it didn’t originate from.
Once that one was dead, I shoved the body away and grabbed the hair of the one chewing on my arm, taking long swallows of my blood. Pulling it off with a scream, I wrestled it to its back in the mud. Before it could attack me, I tore out a clump of its hair. While it screamed in pain, I grabbed its neck and tore it open like the previous one. I reached into its mouth and ripped out its fangs.
I was feeling particularly vicious. I could barely think, but I could feel.
Rage. Pain. Insult.
Sorrow.
“Jacky! We’ve got them retreating!” Heath called. My head snapped up, and I snarled angrily.
I didn’t want them retreating. I wanted them to fight me and meet their fucking maker. I wanted them to pay. The callousness of their Master got innocent people killed. Their need to hide their crimes nearly got me killed…nearly got Heath and Jabari killed.
They didn’t get to run away.
I stood up slowly, kicking away the vampire’s body.
“Where?” I demanded in a growl.
“We need to check on Jabari,” he reminded me quickly, reaching for me as I went to find a blood trail. I shook him off hard, but he latched back on. “Jacky. We need to check on your brother.”
I stopped, letting the words sink in. Jabari. Yes. He was in