“Quiet!” Sam snapped, waving his hand dismissively. A sudden gust of wind knocked Connor backward, and I rose to my feet, stepping away from Vail as I turned to face Sam. Vail was right. Sam was a witch.
Sam sniffed the air, a look of disgust crossing his face. “Connor, you dirty dog, you stink like Vampire pussy. You Vampire-loving freak.” I looked over at Connor, his face suddenly pale and frozen in shock. Sam’s expression twisted into a triumphant grin. “Oh, you didn’t know? You’ve always been a bad Slayer. You can’t even tell your own girlfriend is a Vampire?”
“Connor, I can explain—” I began, but he wouldn’t look at me. His gaze was fixed solely on Sam. “I was going to tell you earlier.” My heart ached with the need for his understanding, for him to look at me. I reached out to him, but he recoiled from my touch as if it burned him. His eyes, once warm with affection, now blazed with betrayal.
“I knew your girlfriend was a Vampire the second I saw her at the bar; her glass smelled like blood,” Sam said. “ButI thought maybe it wasn’t hers, so I kept my eyes on her anyway. I just figured you were smart enough to figure it out, too Connor. I guess I was wrong.”
Connor didn’t speak. His face was pale.
“No wonder your dad wanted to train me at slaying. He probably knew his son was a coward.”
“That’s enough, Sam,” Diana said from beside him, but he ignored her,
Sam, reveling, took a step closer. “Looks like you’ve been living a lie,” he taunted. “But don’t worry, we will take care of your little Vampire problem.”
I felt a surge of panic rising within me as Sam’s words echoed through the warehouse. My vision tunnelled, and I didn’t bother looking at Connor again to see his reaction because I already knew. Flashbacks of the day I discovered Draven’s true nature flooded my mind, igniting a firestorm of anger and betrayal within me, fueling my mind as I focused on my one prerogative.
To tear out Sam’s fucking throat.
I sprinted toward him, feeling the sharp points of my teeth tearing through my gums, elongating into deadly fangs. Sam stumbled back in alarm, but before he could fully react, Donovan intercepted my path, stepping into my trajectory.
Donovan evaded my initial attack, moving effortlessly to the left as he raised his crossbow and launched a rapid series of strikes. Fueled by centuries of predatory instincts, I moved with a dancer’s agility, dodging each stake as if effortlessly gliding through a choreographed dance.
I paused for a moment to assess my surroundings; I heard a warning cry pierce through the chaos. “Rose, Watch out!” Without hesitation, my body reacted, moving with a speed and grace that was nearly impossible for human eyes to follow. I rolled away from Ivy’s incoming attack.
I glanced up. It was Connor’s voice that rang out in concern. In doing so, he was now getting attacked by a pair of Slayers whose assault was relentless. He was mesmerizing to watch as he moved dodging blows and taking out his knife. Connor stabbed one of them in the neck, blood oozing out of the wound, before he swiftly grabbed his head and twisted. “Shit, sorry man,” Connor said as the Slayer dropped dead and the other started attacking.
Watching him was a mistake as I felt a burning graze of a stake shoot past my arm, ripping out a chunk of my flesh.
Now I was mad.
I looked up and bared my teeth at a Slayer who shot the stake, and before she could even react, I jumped on her and tore out her neck with my teeth. I spat out her flesh, careful not to drink her blood, knowing that the Retch was most likely in her system. But that didn’t stop me from using my teeth to tear into her until she was lifeless in my arms.
“Good god,” Connor reacted, his voice breathless with adrenaline, as I rose from the ground. I went over to him. He was in front of Vail, protecting her by shooting off stake after stake from his crossbow. Both Slayers from earlier were lying dead on the ground near him. Standing by his side, I braced myself for the next onslaught, knowing that we were in this together.
Donovan approached us, his gaze locked onto mine with an intensity that sent a shiver down my spine.
Suddenly, Donovan hurled a stake, but his target wasn’t me—it was Vail. Time seemed to slow as it flew through the air, then stopped, inches from Vail’s face. She was standing up now, her hands in front, making the stake stop in mid air. She grabbed it, her knees wobbling from the lack of blood.
In an explosion of fury, Vail unleashed a guttural scream, channeling all her pent-up rage and anguish into a single act of retaliation. With a flick of her wrist, she hurledthe stake back at Donovan, her voice echoing with raw emotion.
“That was for George!” she declared, her words a fierce proclamation of justice.
The stake pierced Donovan’s chest with lethal precision. But Vail’s wrath didn’t stop there. With a surge of power coursing through her, she unleashed one final burst of energy, driving the stake deeper into Donovan’s body with such force that it tore through him, emerging from the back in a crimson spray.
“No! Donovan!” Connor yelled from next to me. I watched as Donovan crumpled to the ground dead. Vail stood there, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her body trembling.
Another movement caught my eye, and I saw Diana standing nearby, armed but not engaged in the fight, her gaze fixed on Donovan’s lifeless form sprawled on the ground.
“Run,” Vail urged her, her voice strained and raw. Diana’s eyes met mine briefly, her expression unreadable, before she turned and fled from the warehouse without a word.
I looked over at Sam and Ivy, observing Sam’s passive stance as he had yet to engage in the fight. When our eyes met, he flashed me a chilling smile. Suddenly, a searing pain erupted in my shoulder as someone thrust a stake into it from behind. I cried out in agony, whirling around to face a Slayer. With instinct driving me, I lunged forward, intent on tearing the Slayer apart. But he was too quick, evading my grasp as I reached for him.
Gritting my teeth against the pain, I reached behind me and yanked the stake from my shoulder; it hadn’t penetrated too deeply. However, my arm hung limp at my side, momentarily useless until the muscles healed.
Connor rushed toward the Slayer, but in the chaos of the moment, the Slayer struck, driving a knife into Connor’s thigh. Connor reacted swiftly, retaliating by stabbing theSlayer in the side. Connor took another step forward but stumbled and collapsed to his knees, blood seeping from the wound in his thigh. My heart clenched as I watched him fall.
The Slayer turned his attention back to me, his movement slow and deliberate as he approached me, his brown eyes gleaming. I braced myself for his attack, my muscles tense and ready.
