A branch snaps to my right, and I adjust quickly, moving my body, right before another stake comes whistling next to my head and embedding itself into a tree.
“Show your face, Slayer,” I growl.
“You’re braver than most,” a voice says, and I turn, trying to find his location. His voice is deep and otherworldly. “You’ll need to be taken care of so I can take what I want.”
“I’m going to rip your fucking heart out,” I bellow.
The Slayer laughs, deep and hearty.
“It will be hard for you to do that when you’re dead. I’m rather fond of this meat suit. So will she.”
She? My Ember?
It’s almost as if I see red. Every second of anger and sadness in my life has accumulated to this moment of rage. I nearly have the one thing I desire and he thinks he can steal it from me?
She isn’t his. She’s mine.
I run, searching, hunting, before I’m hunted myself. Wisps of green flashing around me as I find the being that thinks he can best me. There’s a flash of white, and I don’t hesitate as I tackle him to the ground, my hands wrapping around his neck.
His eyes are solid black, his sclera completely gone. A feral grin spreads across his face as the veins in his neck bulge. I realize then that he’s the man I saw Ember speaking with in town today. He asked her if she was married, but his eyes were different, he seemed more human.
None of that matters, all that matters is that Ember is safe.
He’s beyond human strength, we’re a near match in strength, holding him down is exerting every ounce of strength I have. Ihit him repeatedly in the face as I hold him to the ground by his throat.
He might not be human, but the human he’s possessed is. He can be killed. The thought of what I’m about to do disgusts me, as I turn his head, sinking my teeth into his jugular. His blood tastes like shit, like charcoal against my tongue.
I can feel his odd heartbeat slowing, his fight leaving him. Until the sharpest tinge of pain buries itself into my stomach, making me release his throat. He rolls away clumsily, his hands covering his gushing wound, as he slowly stumbles out of the forest. He must be out of stakes, or worried he can’t win.
A frustrated roar escapes me when I can’t move right away, glancing at the stake in my stomach.
“This isn’t over, Slayer!” I scream.
“Never is,” he gargles back.
I lie there for a long minute, staring up at the branches above me. This can’t happen again. I can’t be cornered and unaware. I can’t leave Ember here in the daytime for that prick to just stroll up and take her.
With a blood-soaked hand, I shove it in my pocket, taking out my phone.
I call Samantha.
“Hey old man, how did fixing her door go?” she asks.
“The fucking Slayer attacked.”
“Where do you need me?”
“Prepare a room for Ember at the house, have the kitchen stocked by the human employees, and hire a chef. Tell everyone in the nest to be on guard. I want round-the-clock security detail on the house, humans during the day, vampires at night. I injured him, but I don’t know how fast he’ll heal or if he’ll heal.”
“Why do you sound like you’re in pain?” she asks, as I try to muffle a wheeze.
“Fucker staked me in the stomach,” I groan.
“I’ll be right there,” she says, and I let the frustration flow through me.
“No. Do as you’re told. Send Achille with the car.”
“But—”
