“Wait a second… I remember those shoes.” Vlad stopped in his tracks and backed up a step.
She flipped her hair back and bounced to her feet. “You better believe it, Dracula, because they’re going to be kicking your ass in about two seconds!”
Vlad narrowed his eyes at Prince and splayed his fingers, sharpening his Mage light.
Kat’s stunner was infused with enough magic to paralyze him—if she could just get him to stand still long enough for her to drive it into his chest.
As if their minds were linked, Prince and Kat began to space apart and flank Vlad from either side.
Vlad reached out to grab her wrist, and she snapped it back, tightening her grip on the knife. Prince rushed Vlad and managed to get his right arm locked behind his back, but Vlad struck him in the face with his elbow and maneuvered out of his grip. They fought with incredible speed and agility—Prince holding his own in hand-to-hand combat against a Mage.
“You’re moving too fast!” Kat yelled, flustered at the thought that she might end up stabbing Prince in the neck instead of Vlad. It wasn’t easy to get her hands on a good stunner, and Kat didn’t want to chance losing her knife.
“Get back!” Prince said in clipped words.
“Did you really just say that to a bounty hunter?” she asked, twirling the knife in her hand. “I’m going to stab you if you don’t get out of the way.”
Prince slammed Vlad against the wall, hand on his throat. “You scum. I’ve waited centuries to get my hands on you.”
Vlad put his hands up as if he were going to gouge out Prince’s eyes. “You left Russia like a dog with its tail between its legs.”
Prince roared and flew back two feet, covering his eyes.
It took Kat a minute before she realized he’d taken a blast of energy to the face. She sprang forward and lunged with the dagger, but Vlad flashed around her.
“Fight like a man!” she yelled, turning around.
“Only if you fight like a woman.” He glanced down at her jeans. “Are you sure you don’t have a penis in there?”
“Are you goading me? Bad idea.”
Prince lunged a nanosecond later, knocking Vlad off the porch and into the dirt. He struck him with repeated blows, but Vlad used his hands to shock Prince with more of his energy. Vlad struggled to his feet and gave his car a passing glance.
“Forget your keys?” Kat sang. “Come inside and get them. You’re not going to get far without a car.” Kat tapped the dagger against her thigh, irritated by her unintentional rhyme that made her sound like Dr. Seuss. “You can only flash for so long before I’ll find you asleep in a ditch, drained like a dead battery. I’m willing to bet this Audi can drive a hell of a lot faster than you can sprint down the main freeway. All I want are answers.Whereis my father?”
Vlad flashed forward and punched her in the face, leaving her no time to react. When he reached for the knife, she thrust it into his left side, but he moved too fast and it only pierced his flesh.
Kat’s lip throbbed and she reacted in anger, slicing the blade in crisscross motions. With each swing, Vlad stepped farther out of reach.
A blood-curdling growl sounded to her right, sending a chill up her spine. From the corner of her eye, she could see Prince had shifted into a stunning black-and-grey wolf. The closer he stalked toward the house, the more she recognized him by his brown and blue eyes, a piercing contrast against his dark pelt.
Vlad backed up against the banister, cornered and eyeing the wolf.
“I’ll leave you alone if you just give me what I want,” she offered.
“Daddy’s precious little girl can’t let go, can she?” He settled his eyes on her in a different way this time. “Just how close were you two?”
“What the hell doesthatmean?”
Prince’s wolf snarled, his fangs intimidating Vlad, who knew exactly how fast a wolf could strip flesh from bone.
“Did he leave you any parting gifts?”
Kat frowned and couldn’t figure out his angle. Why did guys like him have to be so damn difficult? She thought he might be going for the incest jokes since that was the most common insult made toward wolf packs, but before she could formulate a reply, he flashed past her so heart-stoppingly fast that the force knocked her down. Stunned, Kat looked up just in time to see him leaping through the treetops.
“A Jumper. You slick little bastard, I should have known.”
Prince’s wolf took off after him like a torpedo, and Kat was left alone on the dirty porch with a trail of fire ants chilling out near her face, oblivious to the battle of giants happening all around them. Kat hopped up and put her dagger back in the sheath before going inside. Vlad wouldn’t stay away for long, so this was a good opportunity to search his house.
