“Even brought home an extra,” Daniel replied calmly.
“No shit?” He elbowed the camouflaged man in the throat and then turned to us as the man went down, clutching at his neck. In the light, I knew his face would’ve been mottled with color as he struggled for air that never came, but in the dark, he just looked like a formless shape writhing on the ground.
“Rosie, this is Josiah,” Daniel said quietly as we walked further into the woods.
“Hey,” I whispered, scanning the darkness for anything out of place.
“Nice to meet you, Rosie,” Josiah greeted.
“It’s Rosemary, actually.”
“Rosemary, then.”
We quietly made our way around the property in a wide circle, and I’d begun to think that we wouldn’t find anyone as we crossed over the long driveway. The night was silent, though, and that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle. My stomach and chest were still aching, and my clothes stuck to me damply, but I tried my best to ignore it. When I was home again, I could figure out what the hell was going on. I wasn’t sure how I would’ve caught something from the men who’d held me in thatgarage, but I couldn’t rule out food poisoning from the cheap restaurants they’d frequented.
I needed to get home.
The Vampires on each side of me broke into a slow jog as we entered the trees again. They could clearly see or hear something that I couldn’t. Taking a deep breath, I followed them, trying my best to keep my footfalls silent. It wasn’t easy as I tried to match their speed, and eventually I stopped trying for finesse and just focused on not tripping on anything.
I smelled the blood before I saw what they’d been racing toward. There was a body lying on the ground while three others kicked at it.
“Motherfuckers,” I breathed as I ran harder. My footsteps were clumsy and louder than they should’ve been, but my body didn’t seem to be cooperating like it usually did.
Without warning, one of the men who’d been kicking the body spun toward us, and a spray of bullets thunked against the trees and bushes around me.
Dropping into a crouch, I ignored the fear that coated my skin and aimed. I couldn’t see if I’d hit the man, but by the way he folded in half with an almost breathless wail, I was pretty sure I had.
In the time it had taken for me to shoot, the Vampires with me had closed in on the other men and made short work of taking them out. I rose and hurried toward them as they kneeled beside the body on the ground.
“Get up, you big baby,” Josiah chided, making the body chuckle.
“Fuck off.”
“Where are you hit?” Daniel asked as they helped him up.
“Shoulder and side.”
“Sloppy,” Josiah said, shaking his head.
“I thought there were two,” he groaned as they helped him to his feet. “There were three.”
“Can you walk?”
“I’m fine.” He took a few stumbling steps and stopped short when he saw me. “Congratulations, Danny.”
“Thanks,” Danny said, hooking his shoulder under the injured man’s armpit. “Rosie, this is my cousin Matthias. Josiah’s brother.”
I could’ve guessed that myself. When both Vampires were facing me in the dark, I could barely tell the difference between them. The shapes of their faces and the way they held their bodies—even with Matthias wounded—were nearly identical.
Josiah ran to make one more check on the perimeter of the property while we helped Matthias to the driveway. Our shoes crunched on the gravel as we trudged toward the house, but since neither of the Vampires seemed concerned by the noise, I wasn’t either. I still scanned our surroundings like a hawk, searching for anything out of place as we made our way toward the house. It took so long that by the time we reached the cars, Josiah was already there and barely out of breath.
“All clear.”
Charlie climbed out of the car, his face practically gray.
“Shit,” Josiah said, moving toward him. “You been there this whole time?”
“Danny asked me to stay,” he said, glancing toward us. “I wanted to get out, but no one left me a weapon, so?—”
