Slaying Monsters for the Feeble - Annette Marie Page 0,55
at the edge. Faint red magic veined across his hands.
He hopped through the gap and landed on the concrete with barely a thump, but both vampires turned at the sound. He was already flashing toward them. His hands closed around their throats, crushing their windpipes so they couldn’t cry out, then crimson talons sprouted from his fingers and he rammed them into the vampires’ chests. Catching both his victims as they collapsed, he eased them silently to the floor.
My heart twisted as the young computer science major slumped lifelessly, and I reminded myself about Zora’s hard-earned wisdom: Killing them was a mercy.
I clambered off the beam, scooted closer, and dangled my feet through the hole. Returning to the opening, Zylas reached up. I pushed off the edge. He caught me and set me down.
Too many blank doors—probably leading to future executive offices—looked into this large room and it made me nervous. I turned to the papers. The sheet the male vampire had added contained a handwritten list of names and phone numbers titled “Emergency Contacts.” I recognized Uncle Jack’s messy scrawl.
I scooped the papers up and clamped them to my chest. For good measure, I snatched the other piles too.
“This is what I need,” I whispered. “Let’s—”
“Do you smell that?”
The sharp question, muffled by a wall, echoed from somewhere nearby, but I didn’t know which room the sound had come from.
Zylas snatched me by the waist and boosted me toward the ceiling. I grabbed the lip and scrambled into the gap, and he jumped up after me. He rolled away from the opening, tail sweeping up into the darkness.
Footsteps thudded across the concrete.
“What?” a shocked voice barked. “They’re dead?”
Not daring to move, I peeked sideways through the gap. All I could see were the slain vampires’ legs. At least three new figures had gathered around the bodies.
“Stabbed through the heart,” another vampire gasped, crouching to examine the body. “I’ve never seen wounds like this.”
“What could have …” Stiffening, the third vampire faced something I couldn’t see.
The crouching vamp shot to his full height, going equally rigid as footsteps much quieter than the others drew closer. A long pause.
“Find the intruders.”
The low, dry voice issued the command without inflection, and the vampires leaped to obey. I held my breath as they spread throughout the room, opening office doors and searching amongst the construction supplies. They didn’t react to my and Zylas’s scents, so I was guessing they were only sensitive to the smell of blood. Good thing neither of us was bleeding.
Zylas, I thought, we need to get out of here.
He scanned the darkness, tense and focused. Holding the bundle of papers against my chest, I looked around for the quickest way out of the crawlspace. Not far to my left, two large, round duct lines descended from a square hole in the floor above us. I crawled closer, mentally calling Zylas to follow me. Beside the ducting, I peered up. Was that an unfinished opening above?
As vampire voices and the clatters of their search filled the room below, I cautiously pulled myself up. Ducting and wires ran through the spacious gap—large enough for Zylas to fit easily. I reached up and found the open edge above.
“Drādah,” he hissed.
“I can fit,” I breathed, feet braced on a beam as I pulled myself up one-handed, holding the folders tightly with my other arm. “The wall up here isn’t finished. I can get onto the next floor.”
“Drādah—”
Adrenaline flowing hot in my veins, I clambered onto the edge and squinted into the room of the floor above. A small office, perhaps? The empty doorway across from me was a black rectangle, too dark to make out anything beyond it.
Zylas, hurry up and …
My thoughts fizzled. My mind went blank.
In the doorway, a shape darker than the shadows had appeared. Larger than any human, armor glinting faintly—and crimson eyes burning like seething magma.
The demon entered the room in a silent prowl. I recognized his powerful build, his sharp face, his curving horns and dark hair, his long tail and huge bat-like wings. The last time I’d seen the demon, he’d choked Amalia and Travis unconscious at Claude’s command.
Moving with deadly silence, he crossed the small room. Perched on the edge with the opening behind me, I couldn’t even recoil.
The demon stopped in front of me and a cold, cruel smile curved his dusky lips. He reached out and my lungs locked with terror. His huge hand closed around the bundle of papers I clutched.