Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) - By Fionn Jameson Page 0,61

yet utterly dangerous as their shadows played over the jagged stone corridor.

Most vampires I had met were strong, very much so, but they were strong in the way a bear is dangerous. Strength wise they were strong and most counted on the element of surprise, the element of speed to take the head right off one’s shoulders.

Watching two vampires fight was, for the lack of a different or better word to say, an education.

Ryder was fast. So damn fast I could barely see him move.

But so was Lazaro.

And therein proved the problem at hand.

Shannon let out a breath and I watched her hands open, close, and then open again. “This is pointless. Fucking idiot. This is never going to work.”

Ryder ducked as a fist plowed by his ear, clipping the unrestrained blond hair that had probably never seen the sunlight in a very, very long time.

With a grace that belied his size, his strength, he ducked under Lazaro’s outstretched arm and pulled his elbow back, throwing it between his opponent’s shoulder blades.

With an audible thunk, Lazaro staggered forward, his mouth set in a silent o, but even his surprise did not last long.

I felt useless, no, worse than useless, pinned down in the corridor that I could’ve touched with both arms outstretched. Fingernails dug into my palms, as I watched my enemy fight for our lives.

Jason tapped me on the shoulder, his lips close to my ear. I shivered, attributing it t the mind-numbing cold. “There must be something we can do.”

Shannon whirled on one heel, lips turned down at the corners, light brows furrowed down over a small, pointed nose. “Oh yeah? Is there? Christ, Jason, you’re as stupid as you were alive as you are now.”

I blinked. Did that even make any sense? “He is doing more than you.”

“Hush, Ran,” he said softly in an admonishing tone. “I do not need you to fight my battles for me.” And despite the circumstance, I thought I heard a smile in his voice. “At least not my verbal ones.”

Ryder reared back as Lazaro smashed him across the throat with the back of his hand and I felt my own neck twinge in sympathy. On a human, it would’ve crushed the windpipe, but there again was the advantage of being a vampire, of being a monster.

That was right

Vampire equaled monster.

Why was I starting to forget that fact so easily?

“Would you like to help him?” asked Jason.

I flicked the small bi-su into the palm of my hand, relishing the feel of the braided handle sitting so comfortably among all the calluses and scars. “I don’t know what else I can do.”

“Is that the only thing you are good at?” How could he sound so damn amused when it seemed as though we were only minutes away from getting slaughtered like mice caught in a trap? “Fighting? Killing?”

I bit my lip, bit it hard enough to taste copper on my tongue. “It is the only thing I have any confidence in.”

He tsked. “You do tend to underestimate yourself, don’t you?”

I looked at him. “Will you let me?”

“Let you?”

I watched Lazaro raise his foot and plant it squarely on Ryder’s solar plexus, watched Ryder’s face contort as all the air left his body, watched his body fold in on itself like a crumbled up jigsaw puzzle. We were beginning to run out of time, it seemed. “Let me save you.”

At the corner of my eye, I saw him smile. No teeth, just a lifting of his beautiful lips.

“My Ailward, save me,” he said.

And really, that was all that needed to be said, to be heard.

Shannon spat on the ground. “Fuck that. I’ll do what I was told to do and that’s to protect your stupid, precious bodyguard.”

And now a second vampire fighting for me.

My, how the world was changing.

And in a way, it was frightening, positively frightening. “You were told to protect me?”

She glared at me. “As if I cared about your stupid life. But you’re with Jason now. To protect him, I’ve got to protect you.”

Jason made a small sound in the back of his throat. “Shannon…”

She sighed and then turned her back to us, just in time to watch Ryder get his face smashed into the wall, the masonry crumbling around the shape of his head.

He let out a slow moan and slid down the wall to hit the floor with a very definite thump.

He did not move.

Shannon threw off her trench coat and the torchlights played down the tightly laced leather