I was already running to Lula, blinded by black wings. Not a single claw struck me as birds wheeled away, clearing a path.
I caught only glimpses of Lula through the flash of black feathers, like a movie skipping frames.
She was still on her feet and limped forward toward the shrieking mob of birds that covered the vampire.
She held a blade in her fist and inhuman hatred in her eyes.
“Lu!” I yelled, but my voice couldn’t pierce the fury of the crows.
I was almost there, almost close enough to help her.
But Lu didn’t stop. She swung her blade in a tight arc, her whole body rocking with the effort. The blade sliced a path exactly where the vampire’s neck should be.
The birds burst away from Dominick, painfully silent now, just the whispered brush of feathers stroking the air.
They rose upward, a spiral, a black tornado of clever gold eyes and hushed wings funneling out through the broken ceiling, casting into the night as if they had been nothing but smoke. Nothing but dream.
Dominick screamed, a feral beast of a sound, and lurched, arms outstretched.
Lula was too close. Too damn close. He grabbed her by the neck, sharp nails digging in.
She shouted and struggled backward.
Then the vampire’s head rocked sideways and fell off.
Lula shoved at his body with her good hand, and he slumped to the floor.
I crossed the final distance to her, just as she turned toward me.
Her expression was fierce, then worried as she took me in, then relief washed over her.
“Brogan,” she breathed.
I wrapped my arms around her, and she leaned into me, taking all the weight off her left foot, nearly collapsing.
“Love, love,” I babbled, fear and adrenalin making my thoughts too fast and my movements too slow.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she chanted against my shoulder. “We have to go, we have to go. His blood.”
She withdrew a small vial from her pocket. She pushed away from my hold and tried to bend to get some of the vampire’s thick blood into the vial but gasped in pain.
“Here, here now.” I took the vial from her and knelt by the body.
It was more difficult than I expected to get the blood off the floor, to get it into the glass tube. It was thick and slippery and shifted away from the edge of the glass.
So, I changed tactics and shoved the tube into the mess of vampire flesh. I moved the vial around until the viscous fluid filled the tube, then pulled it out and stuck the stopper in it.
“Are there more vamps?” I asked. The knife I’d thrown was still sticking out of his ruined chest. I retrieved it and sheathed it at my side.
“I don’t know.” She swayed slightly. From the dilation of her pupils, I suspected she had a concussion. “I can’t hear them.”
“Can you walk?”
She nodded, took a step, hissed.
I caught her up, one arm under her legs, the other across her back. “This will be faster.”
She went stiff, resisting, then used her right hand to pull her left arm up into her lap. She rested her head against my shoulder.
