Slaying Monsters for the Feeble - Annette Marie Page 0,60
me, one panicked thought in my head: get away from the vampires.
Lights flashed and a horn blared. I stumbled to a halt as a car swerved around me, its brakes squealing. Another horn went off and a pickup truck roared past.
I was in the middle of a road.
The first car, stopped in its lane, gave another beep. The window rolled down and a middle-aged woman leaned out. “I almost ran you over! Are you all right?”
My gaze darted to the building. Shadowy figures appeared in the dark interior, gathering around the window I’d broken.
“Will you drive me home?” I blurted. “Please? I don’t live far from here.”
As another car beeped angrily and pulled around us, the woman scanned me worriedly. “Maybe I should take you to the police station. Or a hospital?”
“No, just—please. Please take me home.”
She grimaced, then jerked her head toward the passenger side of the vehicle. “Okay. Get in.”
I rushed around the car and yanked the door open. The moment I closed it, she accelerated, more beeping from the inconvenienced traffic accompanying us.
“Where to?” the woman asked. “Hon? … Hon, you okay?”
Tears streamed down my face. I slumped back in my seat, the infernus safely tucked under my sweater. The tower and its vampire nest disappeared behind us.
“Thank you,” I whispered, pressing a hand over my eyes. “Thank you for helping me.”
The woman patted my leg. “You’re safe, sweetie. Just tell me where to take you.”
I mumbled my address, then belatedly buckled my seatbelt. As the woman changed lanes to head east, I looked down. Crumpled in my fist was the photo. I stared at my parents’ smiles, and for a moment, just a moment, I allowed myself to pretend that the helpful stranger in the seat beside me was my mom … and we were going home.
Chapter Eighteen
The moment I was through the apartment’s front door, I kicked my shoes off and rushed past the kitchen.
“Robin?” Amalia appeared from her bedroom. “Holy shit!”
I had no idea what I looked like. Every bit of me hurt, especially my back, but I wasn’t worried about my health. I dashed into the bathroom, pulling the infernus out of my sweater with my other hand.
“Zylas,” I said breathlessly. “Come out.”
The silver pendant glowed. Red light spilled down, then expanded into Zylas’s shape. As his body solidified in front of me, his dark eyes gazed into mine—then he crumpled.
I grabbed him, gasping at his weight, and he clutched the towel rack for balance. It tore off the wall. As he staggered, Amalia dove into the bathroom and braced him from behind. Supporting him between us, Amalia and I pulled him over to the tub and tried to ease him down, but he was too heavy. He slipped backward and fell into the tub, his legs hooked over the edge and elbows smacking into the opposite side with hollow thuds.
“Sorry, Zylas,” I panted. “Amalia, get the hot water on.”
She spun the tap and water blasted from the showerhead, spraying across him. His dark eyes went wide.
“Cold!” he gasped, seizing the tub’s edge. With sudden strength, he hauled himself up.
“It’ll get warm in a minute!” I exclaimed. Amalia and I caught his shoulders and held him back. The last thing we needed was for him to collapse on the floor. “Just wait—”
He grabbed the front of my shirt and tried to pull himself out of the water—almost yanking me down on top of him.
“Idiot demon!” Amalia shoved him under the spray. He landed hard, water drenching him. “Would you toughen up for a damn sec—”
Zylas’s head lolled back, half-lidded eyes emptying as though a light had been flicked off. He went limp.
My heart gave one panicked lurch and stopped. “Turn off the water!”
Amalia wrenched on the tap. The water cut off.
“Zylas?” Putting a knee on the tub’s edge, I pressed a hand to his cheek, then patted it gently. No reaction. I held my fingers over his nose and mouth, lightheaded with relief when I felt his breath. “Zylas?”
Amalia leaned over his other side. “I think he’s unconscious.” Her stunned stare turned to me. “We just knocked out a demon with cold water.”
Should we have realized that cold water would have the opposite effect to hot water? “Let’s get him out again.”
Together, we hauled the demon out of the tub, then ran the shower until the rickety pipes produced a steady stream of steaming water. We heaved him back under the flow, straining several muscles each.