Slaying Monsters for the Feeble - Annette Marie Page 0,25

In death, his eyes had turned completely white.

Zylas stood at the counter again, sniffing the air and wrinkling his nose. I stopped beside him and forced my gaze up. Past his bare abdomen, banded with muscle. Past his leather-and-plate armor. Past his tight jaw.

My eyes met burning, arctic crimson. Fighting the deeply ingrained habit, I didn’t look away.

“We’re in this together,” I said tersely, “and whether you think so or not, I’m doing my best to get us where we need to go and learn the things we need to learn. You have only one obligation in all of this—to protect me.”

He gazed down at me without expression. My hands curled into fists, anger burning through my fear of confrontation.

“You’re bigger than me!” I yelled. “You’re stronger and you’re faster! I can’t make you do anything—except get in or out of the infernus for two seconds! Is that really so offensive to your pride? Is it reason enough to go back on your word? You bully me and disrespect me and torment my only friend and destroy my belongings every day, but I’m still keeping up my end of our agreement!”

“I did not go back on my word.”

“You let that vampire attack me!”

“You were not in danger.”

Enraged, betrayed tears stung my eyes. “So the bare minimum is all you’re willing to do? You’ll keep me alive and nothing more?” I paused. “But you expect far more than my minimum effort.”

He said nothing, unmoving. Not even his tail snapped back and forth to betray his anger. We stared at each other and I struggled to hold eye contact, unwilling to concede.

His arm swept out, nearly knocking me off my feet—and suddenly, I was behind him. He backed into me, pushing me into the wall. I was too short to see over his shoulder so I squeezed sideways to peer around his arm.

Two new arrivals stood just inside the front door, one propping a sledgehammer on his shoulder. Two pairs of ravenous black eyes, red rings glowing eerily around the white irises, were fixed on us, and the newcomers’ fingers were already extending into long, sharp claws.

Two more vampires had just crashed our party.

Chapter Eight

I pressed my hands against Zylas’s sides as though holding on to him would steady the swirl of confusion and fear in my head. What were more vampires doing in Claude’s destroyed townhome?

The taller vampire cocked his head. “Recognize the girl?”

His comrade nodded. “The niece, right?”

“Seems so. We should take her alive. Might be useful.”

“Fine with me.” The shorter vampire ran his tongue across his teeth, the pink tip resting against one curved fang. “Don’t want that demon vanishing on us before we get a taste.”

Zylas stiffened.

The short vampire swung the sledgehammer off his shoulder like it weighed nothing. “This is going to be good.”

Zylas stepped sideways, pulling me with him, then pushed me toward the hall with one hand. I understood. He wanted me to get clear.

The short vampire gave the sledgehammer one more swing, then launched across the kitchen. Zylas sprang to meet the charge, sliding past the sledgehammer’s heavy metal head. His claws caught the vampire’s chest, tearing through clothes and flesh. The man twisted frantically away.

Zylas spun on the tile floor, slashing at the stumbling vampire. Halfway through the motion, the demon ducked and the other vamp’s talon-like fingers just missed his head.

The three combatants whirled through the tiny kitchen in a confusing blur of limbs. Zora had warned that vampires were faster than humans, but these two were almost as fast as Zylas.

He dove away from another sledgehammer swing. Landing on his hands, he kicked backward, catching the vampire in the jaw and nearly snapping his neck. Zylas pivoted in a handstand and his spinning kick smashed into the second vampire. With a flip, he was on his feet again, claws shredding the tall vampire’s arm.

But flesh wounds had no effect on vampires.

Zylas leaped sideways to evade the sledgehammer—and hit the kitchen table. Thrusting his arm up, he caught a vampire’s fangs on his metal armguard, then rammed his fist into the vamp’s ribs, bones snapping loudly.

The sledgehammer swung again. Zylas darted away, and the sledgehammer split the table in half.

The other vampire tackled Zylas to the floor. Straddling the demon’s chest, the vamp grabbed Zylas’s wrists and pushed. The demon’s muscles bunched with power as he pushed back—and neither creature moved. Zylas’s eyes widened with shock that the vampire could match his strength.

Grinning, the shorter vamp pulled his sledgehammer out of the