a stop. Impatiently glancing out the passenger side window, she stupidly realized that wolves couldn’t open doors.
She threw herself across the seats and opened the door. As Devon leapt into the seat, she straightened up to an enlarging fist within the frame of her window.
She screamed. Shatterproof glass fragments rained down on her as a delicate hand reached through and gripped her arm.
Pain bled into her—nothing delicate about that grip. He would drag her out, and she had no hope of fighting him. The other vamp, bitten to hell but heart and neck still intact, reached for Devon through his open door with his one remaining arm. They were outgunned. The vampires had the advantage.
Chapter Thirty
She screamed again. Electricity surged through her middle as she threw up her hand to ward away her BFF.
Heat and light, an exact mimic of noon, rained down. It shocked into the exposed skin of their attackers. The electric bug zapper noise drowned out the sizzle of vampire skin. Both vamps howled, throwing their hands up to try to protect their faces. As Charity’s energy dwindled quickly, she smashed her foot on the gas and the SUV lurched forward. Long screeches sounded as claws tore up the sides of the vehicle.
The sun blinked off like a halogen light, making the car lights seem dim and useless.
“Stay above forty and we’re fine,” Devon said, his voice weak and hoarse. He was back in human form. Blood oozed from gashes all over his body, a couple of them deep and gruesome. He caught his swinging door in a crimson-covered hand and barely had the strength to pull it closed.
“Are you okay?” she asked, reaching out to touch his shoulder.
He caught her hand and lowered it toward the seat, but he didn’t let go. He was shaking just as much as she was. “I will be. Shifters heal fast. I won’t bleed out.”
“Oh God, Devon, I’m so—” She’d turned the wheel too far. The SUV swerved wildly, nearly dropping them into a ditch. “Crap. This thing is really sensitive. I’m so sorry.”
“Keep us above forty, and get us home. We’ll be safe as soon as we get past the ward.”
“They can run that fast?” She glanced in the rearview mirror, but no sprinting shapes took up the middle of the road behind them. If the vampires were chasing them, they were taking a different path. “Maybe we should go into the Realm?”
“The fastest of them can run that fast, and I have a feeling your admirer qualifies. Head home. I don’t know that my body would survive the crossing just yet.” He coughed, shaking with each hacking wheeze of breath. Blood pooled under his leg. Tears obscured Charity’s eyes until she could blink them away.
“I need to pass out for a while. The ward will keep out two vamps, no matter how old.”
Terror squeezed her heart. His voice was so weak, his body bowed over, as if completely sapped of strength and vitality. “Why do you have to pass out? You can’t heal awake?”
“We can, it just takes longer. If I shut down my body for everything but healing, all my energy will go to stitching things back together from the inside out. Take a left here.” He coughed again, huge, full-body spasms that had him dipping forward painfully.
“Oh God, Devon… Oh God.” Charity was going fifty and dared not go any faster. If she took a corner too fast and hit a tree, those vamps would find them, and then she and Devon would be screwed.
“Almost there. You’re doing fine.”
“Get my phone. Call…someone. Andy or Dillon or even Yasmine—we should call someone! Do you know Roger’s number? Maybe we should call him.”
Devon coughed again, his head lolling. “I just need to pass out.”
“Okay. Almost…here. We’re here!”
She skidded to a stop in the driveway, then jumped out and dashed around the hood before pulling at his door. What she saw froze her to the bones.
The overhead light showered Devon’s slumped body. It was much worse than she’d thought, and she had thought it was bad. Scores of jagged parallel lines marred his skin. Deep red blood, almost black, dribbled down his back or across his hip, she couldn’t tell which, indicating a wide and deep wound that would have a normal human bleeding out quickly. More blood smeared across his stomach, legs, and arms. Very little of his skin was clear, and that was covered in pavement rash and grime.
“Please tell me all that blood isn’t yours,” Charity