I pulled my hair sticks from my belt and stabbed them into her shoulder. The puncturing weapons dug into her muscle, hopefully inducing a lot of pain before I yanked them free—ideally weakening her with blood loss.
My slayer senses flared—in addition to Tetiana, another vampire had entered the area. Clarence, maybe? But department backup had more vampires in its numbers, so why wasn’t I sensing more than two vamps?
Gisila roared in pain, but still managed to stab at my stomach with her dagger.
I started to dodge, until I realized she was going to scratch my skin this time. That was something I could bear, but I was going to bleed.
Tetiana and Clarence—I can’t risk them. I can’t bleed!
To avoid shedding my blood, I was forced to collapse down in an ungainly heap that put me at a severe disadvantage.
I shouldn’t have let Gisila catch up with me—that was underestimating her, and I should know better.
I needed to get rid of that dagger of hers.
Gisila tried to stomp on me, aiming for my ribs.
I rolled to the side, avoiding her.
She tried to follow up by stabbing me with the dagger, which brought her into kicking range. Taking advantage of my longer reach, I kicked her in the jaw.
Gisila staggered backwards. As tough as she was, taking a kick to the head was no joke.
I scrambled to my feet and had just enough time to grab her arm and dig my fingers into the tendons of her wrist that controlled flexing the fingers. This loosened her grasp on her dagger, and I had just enough time to pluck it from her grasp and run before she recovered from the head kick.
Gisila snarled as she tried to catch me, but was unable to keep up. “No matter how you struggle, slayer, you’re not going to win tonight. The prophecy said I would lay hand upon what I have long sought, and the moment I do it’s over. No one will be able to stand against me.” Gisila turned to face the door to the viewing room. “In fact…”
Oh, that’s bad. That’s very bad—I don’t want her touching that elf weapon.
Halfway to panic, I threw Gisila’s’ dagger at her.
She ducked it and stalked toward the door.
What do we do? Jumping her would be too dangerous, but we’re running out of options.
Gisila was almost to the door.
I clenched my teeth, then started to run at her.
I thought I heard a growl that sounded suspiciously like Binx in her cat form, but before I could identify the sound, Orrin spoke. “Considering she’s a slayer, she’s causing a lot of trouble.”
I skid to a stop about ten feet short of the dragon shifter as Gisila turned around to glare at Orrin.
Her face was drawn tight with fury. “Speakcarefully, Orrin,” she warned him. “You’re already going to be punished for your failures the moment I put this miserable city behind me. You do not wish to worsen your punishment, do you?”
What a terrible employer. Maybe Orrin really was loyal to the Cloisters when they put him out on his community service stint.
I slipped my hair sticks back in my belt, intending to draw a dagger instead, when a garbled beep emitted from my pocket.
That was my cellphone. The only people who would be trying to contact me with my phone during a work shift would either be Sunshine…or the slayer stake. Considine!
Heedless of the danger I was leaving myself wide open to, I ripped my phone out of my pocket. The screen protector was broken from my tussle with Gisila, but I could still read the screen.
It was a text from Dad.
I tapped at the message, and then was rammed into from behind.
My phone went flying from my hands, landing on the ground and skidding about six feet away.
