She made no sound of protest, made no struggle, giving herself up willingly. Some of the tension slipped from the undead’s body. With every ounce of strength she possessed, everything she was, Joie plunged the knife deep into his chest, driving straight for his heart.
Lifting his head, Valenteen screamed horribly, the sound shattering glass from windows. Gripping her hair, he dragged her backward as his body fought to stay up in spite of the knife in his heart. With his other hand he grabbed her chin with every intention of breaking her neck.
Blood gushed from the wound in her neck so that his hand slipped off. Joie clamped both hands on the back of the fist clutching her hair to hold his hand to her head. Dropping low, she spun around and stood up fast, snapping bones in his hand. He howled as he let her go, raking at her with poison-tipped talons.
Traian emerged from the darkness, his eyes flaming red, dragging the vampire off of her, wrenching his head around hard. The knife handle dropped uselessly to the floor of the verandah, the blade completely eaten away by acid in the blood of the undead. Traian’s fist shot out, plunging deep, following the trail of the knife. Valenteen matched the move, driving his good hand into the wall of Traian’s chest, through the muscle and tissue, seeking his heart.
Valenteen and Traian stood eye to eye, toe to toe, both driving toward one another’s heart. Traian ignored the pain of a claw tearing through muscle and tissue, ripping his flesh. He had one purpose. He had to reach that heart and kill the vampire, even if Valenteen managed to kill him. His lifemate and her siblings had no chance without him succeeding. His fingers burrowed deep. Acid blood poured over his arm, burning through to his bones. The vampire raked at him with his other arm and bent forward to try to tear his neck open with his teeth stained with Joie’s blood.
Staring into the vampire’s eyes, Traian ripped the shriveled, blackened organ out and tossed it aside. “You lose, Valenteen. You are dead.”
“Not yet,” Valenteen’s teeth snapped around Traian’s neck.
Chapter Twelve
Traian felt stabbing pain as teeth sank into his neck and the fist continued burrowing through his chest toward his heart. No master vampire would go down so easily. Already the rotten heart rocked to the summons of its growling, snarling master and began to slither across the floor to its host. Traian staggered under the weight of the heavy body trying to bring him to the ground. Insects abandoned the room to rush to the aid of their master. Bats darkened the hallway, rushing from the bedroom abandoning the two men they were trying to drain of blood, to serve Valenteen.
Gary and Jubal both stumbled to their feet, half blind with blood dripping from hundreds of bites, bodies swelling from insect bites, both trying to make their way to aid Traian. Gabrielle burst from the bathroom, sweeping up the shotgun as she ran, turning it as she would a baseball bat and as Valenteen lifted his head to spit blood in Traian’s face, she slammed the butt of the shotgun full force into the vampire’s face, driving him back and away from Traian.
“Get off of him!” She followed the vampire, hitting him a second time just as hard, with just as much adrenaline as the first strike. She stepped in Joie’s blood and slipped. Instantly she dropped to her knees beside her sister, hands clamping around her torn neck in an effort to slow down the bleeding. “Jubal! Help me.”
The hand groping for Traian’s heart fell free as Valenteen fell backward. Traian went to his knees as the bats went into a frenzy, eager for the hunter’s blood. Jubal tore handfuls of bats from Traian. Gary did the same. At Gabrielle’s cry, Jubal turned to see his youngest sister lying in an alarmingly large pool of blood.
Traian, still kneeling, covered in insects and biting bats, a hole torn in his chest, ignored all of it, blocking out pain and weakness from blood loss. He lifted his hands toward the hole in the ceiling of the bedroom. In answer, the clouds roiled with energy, silver streaks edging each of the spinning, dark fountains. Lightning forked in the sky, spun until it was a bright white sphere, hurtling down from the heavens like a streaking comet.
Valenteen shrieked and threw himself toward his heart, grasping at it with his outstretched hand.