was, but Sophie could hear the hurt there.
“You? I didn’t even tel Pete when I married him, George.”
“It doesn’t matter. Whatever you are, you’re stil old.”
He lunged suddenly, but Sophie was expecting it.
She moved aside in a diagonal step that took her to a sitting position, and then whirled in a sweep that took out George’s legs from under him. The slight move wasn’t one that would stop a vampire, but it would buy her a second or two.
“My human side ages,” she said, “but the rest of me? That just gets stronger, George.”
The vampire rose to a feral crouch, al pretense of subtlety abandoned. Sophie didn’t try to avoid the next charge. Instead, she flicked out the rope she held in a move she had first learned with a leather bul whip, striking George in a painful blow designed to distract him. It took the momentum out of his charge, leaving her the time to step around him, sliding the rope around his neck and using the extra leverage to throw him again in an aikido move.
Again, George got to his knees. “You can’t win, Sophie. You can’t hurt me.”
“I can.”
A dark shape blurred through the door, slamming into George and driving him back into the wal . It took Sophie a moment to recognize Fal on, and in that moment the boy had already drawn a stake from within his clothing and thrust forward, so powerful y that it went right through George, pinning him to the diner’s wal . The older man struggled for a few seconds before fal ing stil . Even so, no flames leapt up to claim his form.
“Fal on, what are you doing here?” Sophie said.
“It’s good to see you too, Mrs. Edge.”
“Yes, yes. Thank you for saving me, young man, but don’t dodge the question.”
Sophie watched Fal on shrug. “I have been here a while. I would have come in to help you earlier, but I had to wait until Pietre was gone.”
“Do you know where he went?”
Fal on shook his head.
“Then we just have the question of what to do with George left.” Sophie resisted the urge to reach out to the older man, dormant now, but obviously not finished. Pietre must have let him have next to no blood if an injury like this could reduce him to something so weak, yet a little feeding, and he would be just as dangerous again. Sophie turned to her niece’s vampire boyfriend. “You missed the heart.”
She watched the young vampire lick his lips nervously. “Would you want me to have hit it?”
Part of Sophie wanted to say yes. That it was the better option. That George wouldn’t want to be a monster.
Yet she didn’t say anything. Nor did she reach down to the remains of her chair to find something with which to finish the job. The boy in front of her was proof enough that vampires could hold their natures in check for a time, however much the other part of her argued with the idea.
Perhaps George would manage the same.
“You did the right thing, Fal on. If we are lucky, we wil be able to help George, but we wil need to keep an eye on him.”
Fal on nodded. “Um… not now though. We stil have an escape to finish, right?”
Sophie smiled slightly at that. “Young man, I was escaping from vampires before you were born. Now, look escaping from vampires before you were born. Now, look around and see if Pietre left any of my things, would you?”
Fal on hurried off, and Sophie found herself looking once more at her staked friend. It would be safer if they could restrain him in some way, but who carried around silver chains with them? For now, George would just have to stay staked. A smal shudder passed through Sophie.
When Pietre came back, he would not be happy. Stil , there was nothing she could do about that.
“Mrs. Edge? I think I got everything.” Fal on was back, holding the weapons that had been taken from her.
Sophie chose the ones that would fit out of sight and left the rest. They would attract too much attention walking through the middle of town. Final y, she abandoned earlier thoughts of the danger to reach out and pat George’s shoulder.
“Be lucky, old friend. Maybe we’l both find a way to get out of this in one piece.” She took his phone and looked over to Fal on. “Wel , young man, what are you